COLLEGE   OF  AGRICULTURE 
DAVIS,  CALIFORNIA 


ESSAYS 

HISTORICAL    AND    LITERARY 
VOLUME   I 


Essays 

Historical   and   Literary 

BY 
JOHN    FISKE 

VOLUME   I 

SCENES    AND    CHARACTERS    IN   AMERICAN 
HISTORY 


"  Study  as  if  for  Life  Eternal,  live  prepared  to  die  to-morrow" 

—  MONKISH    PROVERB. 


Nefo  gotk 
THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

LONDON:   MACMILLAN  &  CO.,   LTD. 
1902 

All  ngbts  reserved 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

LIBRARY 

AGRICULTURE 
r>  A  \nc 


COPYRIGHT,  1902, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 

Set  up  and  electrotyped  September,  1902. 


NorfoooU  $rf0s 

J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.  -  Berwick  &  Smith 
Norwood  Mass.  U.S.A. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.    THOMAS    HUTCHINSON,    LAST    ROYAL    GOVERNOR    OF 

MASSACHUSETTS i 

II.    CHARLES  LEE,  SOLDIER  OF  FORTUNE          .         .         .53 

III.  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  AND  THE  FEDERALIST  PARTY  .     99 

IV.  THOMAS  JEFFERSON,  THE  CONSERVATIVE  REFORMER  .  143 
V.    JAMES  MADISON,  THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  STATESMAN         .  183 

VI.    ANDREW  JACKSON,  FRONTIERSMAN  AND  SOLDIER         .  219 

VII.    ANDREW   JACKSON   AND   AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEV 
ENTY  YEARS  AGO     .         .         .         .         .         .         .  265 

VIII.    HARRISON,  TYLER,  AND  THE  WHIG  COALITION  ("  TIP- 

PECANOE   AND    TYLER    TOO  ")      .  .  .  .  -315 

IX.   DANIEL  WEBSTER  AND  THE  SENTIMENT  OF  UNION     .  363 
INDEX .         .411 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  material  in  this  volume  was  intended,  by  the 
Author,  to  be  embodied  in  a  greater  work,  A  History 
of  the  American  People.  Many  of  these  chapters 
were  given  by  him  as  lectures  in  every  part  of  our 
broad  country,  always  enlarging  and  strengthening 
the  bond  of  friendship  with  his  people  —  who  freely 
gave  him  such  personal  opinions,  letters,  and  private 
documents  as  aided  him  in  perfecting  his  historical 
work.  Some  of  these  letters,  of  especial  significance, 
I  have  here  included  as  notes. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  D.  Appleton  &  Company,  I 
am  enabled  to  reproduce  in  the  essays  —  Charles  Lee, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  James  Madison,  Andrew  Jackson, 
and  Daniel  Webster  —  biographical  passages  written 
by  the  Author  for  the  Encyclopaedia  of  American 

Biography. 

ABBY   MORGAN   FISKE. 

WESTGATE, 

September  26,  1902. 


I 

THOMAS    HUTCHINSON 

LAST   ROYAL  GOVERNOR  OF  MASSACHUSETTS 


I 

THOMAS  HUTCHINSON 

LAST  ROYAL  GOVERNOR  OF  MASSACHUSETTS 

ONE  of  the  most  encouraging  features  of  the  age  in 
which  we  live  is  the  rapidity  with  which  the  bitter 
feelings  attendant  upon  a  terrible  civil  war  have  faded 
away  and  given  place  to  mutual  friendliness  and 
esteem  between  gallant  men  who,  less  than  thirty  years 
ago,  withstood  one  another  in  deadly  strife.  Among 
our  public  men  who  hunger  for  the  highest  offices,  a 
few  Rip  van  Winkles  are  still  to  be  found  who,  with 
out  sense  enough  to  realize  the  folly  and  wickedness  of 
their  behaviour,  try  now  and  then  to  fan  into  fresh  life 
the  dying  embers  of  sectional  prejudice  and  distrust; 
but  their  speech  has  lost  its  charm,  and  those  that  bow 
the  ear  to  it  are  few.  The  time  is  at  hand  when  we 
may  study  the  great  Civil  War  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury  as  dispassionately  as  we  study  that  of  the  seven 
teenth;  and  the  warmest  admirer  of  Cromwell  and 
Lincoln  may  rejoice  in  belonging  to  a  race  of  men 
that  has  produced  such  noble  Christian  heroes  as 
Lucius,  Viscount  Falkland,  and  General  Robert  Lee. 
Such  a  time  seems  certainly  not  far  off  when  we  see 
how  pleasantly  the  generals  of  opposing  armies  can 
now  sit  down  and  tell  their  reminiscences,  and  discuss 
each  other's  opinions  and  conduct  in  the  pages  of  a 
popular  magazine. 

3 


4  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

Had  the  Civil  War  resulted  in  dividing  the  United 
States  into  two  distinct  nations,  such  an  era  of  recon 
ciliation  would,  of  course,  have  been  long  delayed. 
With  most  people  the  sentiment  of  patriotism,  which 
now  extends,  however  inadequately,  over  the  whole 
country,  would  then  have  become  restricted  to  half  of 
it.  It  would  have  been  long  before  an  independent 
Confederacy  could  have  recognized  the  personal  merit 
of  men  who  strove  with  might  and  main  to  prevent 
its  independence;  and  it  would  have  been  long  before 
the  defeated  and  curtailed  United  States  could  have 
been  expected  to  admire  the  character  or  do  justice  to 
the  motives  of  those  who  had  shorn  it  of  power  and 
prestige.  When  one  group  of  people  owes  its  national 
existence  to  the  military  humiliation  of  another,  the 
situation  is  very  unfavourable  for  correct  historical 
judgments,  and  it  is  apt  to  fare  ill  with  the  reputation 
of  men  who  have  been  upon  the  unpopular  side.  Such, 
for  the  past  hundred  years,  have  been  the  relations 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  and 
accordingly  many  of  the  illustrious  men  of  the  Revo 
lutionary  period  are  still  sadly  misunderstood,  in  the 
one  country  if  not  in  the  other.  The  two  foremost 
men  of  the  time,  the  two  that  tower  above  all  others 
in  that  century,  Washington  and  Chatham,  are  indeed 
accepted  as  heroes  in  both  countries ;  their  fame  is  the 
common  possession  of  the  English  race.  The  admi 
ration  which  our  British  cousins  feel  for  Washington 
is  perhaps  even  more  disinterested  than  that  which 
we  Americans  feel  for  our  eloquent  defender,  Chat 
ham  ;  but  in  either  case  the  homage  is  paid  to  tran 
scendent  greatness.  In  the  portraits  of  too  many  of 
the  actors  upon  our  Revolutionary  scene,  the  brush  of 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS        5 

partisan  prejudice  has  obscured  or  distorted  the  true 
features.  To  this  day  British  writers  are  apt  to  speak 
of  Patrick  Henry  as  a  ranting  fire-eater,  and  Samuel 
Adams  as  a  tricksome  demagogue ;  while  upon  the 
pages  of  American  historians  may  be  found  remarks 
that,  as  applied  to  such  high-minded  gentlemen  as 
Burgoyne  or  Cornwallis,  are  simply  silly. 

But  of  all  the  men  of  that  day  none  have  fared  so 
ill  as  the  American  loyalists.  They  were  not  only  out 
of  sympathy  with  the  declared  policy  of  their  country, 
but  they  were  on  the  losing  side.  As  a  party  they 
were  crushed  out  of  existence,  as  individuals  they  were 
driven  into  exile  by  thousands ;  and  for  a  long  time 
their  voice  was  silenced.  Liberal  leaders  in  England, 
like  Fox  and  Richmond,  who  hailed  with  glee  the 
news  of  each  American  victory,  were  equally  out  of 
sympathy  with  the  declared  policy  of  their  own  coun 
try  ;  but  they  were,  nevertheless,  a  power  in  the  land. 
The  unanswerable  logic  of  events  was  on  their  side ; 
it  was  they  that  could  say,  "  We  told  you  so  " ;  they 
represented  principles  that  triumphed  at  Yorktown  and 
were  soon  to  triumph  in  England.  The  American 
loyalists,  on  the  other  hand,  represented  principles 
that  have  been  irredeemably  and  forever  discredited. 
They  set  themselves  in  opposition  to  the  strongest 
and  most  wholesome  instinct  of  the  English  race,  the 
inborn  love  of  self-government ;  and  they  have  incurred 
the  fate  which  is  reserved  for  men  who  diverge  too 
widely  from  the  progressive  movement  of  the  age  in 
which  they  live.  It  becomes  difficult  for  the  next  age 
to  understand  them,  or  to  attribute  their  behaviour  to 
anything  but  sheer  perverseness.  Yet  among  these 
American  loyalists  were  men  of  noblest  character  and 


6  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

purest  patriotism  :  and  we  need  only  to  divest  our 
selves  for  the  moment  of  the  knowledge  of  subsequent 
events  which  in  their  day  none  could  foresee ;  we 
need  only  to  put  ourselves  back,  in  imagination,  into 
the  circumstances  amid  which  their  opinions  were 
formed  and  their  actions  determined,  in  order  to  do 
justice  to  the  deep  humanity  that  was  in  them.  We 
may  dissent  from  their  opinions,  and  disapprove  their 
actions  as  heartily  as  ever ;  but  it  is  our  duty,  as  stu 
dents  of  history,  to  take  our  stand  upon  that  firm 
ground  where,  freed  from  the  fleeting  passions  of  a 
day,  true  manliness  may  be  taken  for  its  worth. 

Among  the  American  loyalists  of  the  Revolutionary 
period  there  is  perhaps  none  who  has  had  such  hard 
measure  as  Thomas  Hutchinson.  It  may  be  doubted 
if  any  other  American  in  high  position,  except  Benedict 
Arnold,  has  ever  incurred  so  much  obloquy..  But  to 
couple  these  two  names,  even  for  a  moment,  is  gross 
injustice  to  the  last  royal  governor  of  Massachusetts. 
Alike  for  intellectual  eminence  and  for  spotless  purity 
of  character,  there  have  been  few  Americans  more 
thoroughly  entitled  to  our  respect  than  Thomas 
Hutchinson.  It  is  sad  indeed,  though  perfectly  natu 
ral,  that  such  a  man  should  have  had  to  wait  a  hundred 
years  before  his  countrymen  could  come  to  consider 
his  career  dispassionately,  and  see  him  in  the  light  in 
which  he  would  himself  have  been  willing  to  be  seen. 
Let  us  take  a  brief  survey  of  the  personal  history  of 
this  man  ;  and  as  he  belonged  to  a  family  distinguished 
in  both  the  Old  World  and  the  New,  let  us  begin  with  a 
glance  at  his  ancestry. 

In  the  English  literature  of  the  seventeenth  century 
there  are  few  books  more  charming  than  the  memoirs 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS       7 

of  Colonel  John  Hutchinson  of  Owthorpe,  written  by 
his  widow  Lucy.  Nowhere  do  we  get  a  pleasanter 
picture  of  domestic  life  in  the  time  of  Charles  I.,  or  of 
the  personality  of  a  great  Puritan  soldier,  than  in  those 
strong  pages,  glowing  with  sweet  wifely  devotion. 
This  John  Hutchinson,  valiant  defender  of  Notting 
ham  and  regicide  judge,  was  eleventh  in  descent  from 
Bernard  Hutchinson,  of  Cowland,  in  Yorkshire,  a 
doughty  knight  of  the  time  of  Edward  I.  From  the 
same  Bernard,  apparently  through  Richard  of  Wyck- 
ham,  in  the  sixth  generation,  in  a  chain  of  which  one 
link  still  awaits  complete  verification,  came  Edward 
Hutchinson,  of  Alford,  in  Lincolnshire,  who  flourished 
in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  but  lived  long  enough  to  see 
hundreds  of  his  friends  and  neighbours  forsake  their 
homes  and  set  forth  under  Winthrop's  leadership  to 
found  a  colony  in  Massachusetts  Bay.  From  one  of 
Edward's  younger  sons  are  descended  the  Irish  earls 
of  Donoughmore,  including  the  able  general  who,  for 
overthrowing  the  remnant  of  Napoleon's  army  in 
Egypt  in  1801,  was  first  raised  to  the  peerage  as  Lord 
Hutchinson.  Edward's  eldest  son,  William,  born  two 
years  before  the  defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada,  was 
married  in  1612  to  Anne  Marbury,  daughter  of  a 
Lincolnshire  clergyman,  a  scion  of  the  distinguished 
family  of  Sir  Walter  Blunt.  Anne's  mother  was  sister 
to  Sir  Erasmus  Dryden,  grandfather  of  the  great  poet 
William  and  his  wife  were  warm  friends  and  adhe 
rents  of  John  Cotton,  rector  of  St.  Botolph's,  and  after 
that  famous  divine  had  taken  his  departure  for  New 
England,  they  were  not  long  in  following  him.  Will 
iam's  father,  the  venerable  Edward,  had  died  in  1631  ; 
and  three  years  afterward,  taking  the  widowed  mother, 


8  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

Susanna,  the  wife,  and  fourteen  children,  William 
made  his  way  across  the  Atlantic  to  Boston,  where  he 
proceeded  to  build  a  comfortable  house  on  the  site 
where  now  stands  the  Old  Corner  Bookstore.  There, 
however,  he  was  not  destined  long  to  dwell.  The 
Antinomian  heresy  soon  roused  such  fierce  disputes  as 
to  threaten  the  very  existence  of  the  colony,  and  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  as  the  leading  agitator,  was  tried  for  sedi 
tion  and  banished.  Early  in  1638  the  family  fled  to 
the  Narragansett  country,  where  at  first  they  were  fain 
to  seek  shelter  in  a  cave.  But  presently  Mr.  Hutchin 
son,  with  William  Coddington  and  a  few  faithful  fol 
lowers,  bought  the  island  of  Aquednek  from  the 
Indians  for  forty  fathoms  of  white  wampum,  and 
forthwith  the  building  of  the  towns  of  Portsmouth 
and  Newport  went  on  briskly.  In  1642,  when  Mr. 
Hutchinson  died,  the  outlook  for  the  little  colony  was 
dubious.  The  New  England  Confederacy  was  about 
to  be  formed,  and  there  were  strong  hints  that  the 
Rhode  Island  settlements,  if  they  would  share  in  its 
advantages,  must  put  themselves  under  the  jurisdic 
tion  either  of  Massachusetts  or  of  Plymouth.  Absurd 
and  horrible  tales  were  told  about  Mrs.  Hutchinson, 
and  found  many  believers.  There  were  some  who 
suspected  her  of  being  a  paramour  of  Satan,  and  per 
haps  the  fear  of  arrest  on  a  charge  of  witchcraft  may 
have  had  something  to  do  with  her  next  move.  At  all 
events,  soon  after  her  husband's  death,  the  poor  woman, 
with  most  of  her  children  and  a  few  friends,  removed 
to  a  place  since  known  as  Pelham,  a  few  miles  west  of 
Stamford  and  within  the  tolerant  jurisdiction  of  the 
New  Netherlands.  There  in  the  course  of  the  follow 
ing  -year  they  were  all  cruelly  murdered  by  Indians, 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS       9 

save  one  little  ten-year-old  daughter,  Susanna,  who 
was  ransomed  after  four  years  of  captivity. 

In  this  wholesale  massacre  the  eldest  son,  Edward, 
was  not  included.  At  the  time  of  his  mother's  banish 
ment  he  was  twenty-five  years  old.  He  had  lately 
returned  from  a  visit  to  England,  bringing  with  him  a 
fair  young  bride  who  was  admitted  to  communion 
with  the  First  Church  in  Boston  in  December,  1638. 
While  Edward's  loyalty  to  his  mother  got  him  so  far 
into  trouble  that  he  was  heavily  fined  and  sentence  of 
banishment  was  passed  upon  him,  we  may  imagine 
that  his  wife's  orthodoxy  may  have  helped  him  some 
what  in  making  his  peace  with  the  magistrates  of  the 
Puritan  commonwealth.  At  any  rate  he  spent  the  rest 
of  his  life  in  Boston,  where  for  seventeen  years  he  was 
a  deputy  in  the  General  Court.  He  was  also  the  chief 
commander  of  horse  in  the  colony,  and  in  the  summer 
of  1675,  after  the  disastrous  beginning  of  King  Philip's 
War,  he  was  sent  to  Brookfield  to  negotiate  with  the 
Nipmuck  Indians.  The  treacherous  savages  appointed 
the  time  and  place  for  a  rendezvous,  but  lay  in  ambush 
for  Captain  Hutchinson  as  he  approached,  and  slew 
him,  with  several  of  his  company. 

Of  Edward's  twelve  children,  the  eldest  son,  Elisha, 
came  to  be  judge  of  common  pleas  and  member  of 
the  council  of  assistants,  and  in  1688  was  joined  with 
Increase  Mather,  in  London,  in  protesting  against  the 
high-handed  conduct  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros.  One 
of  the  earliest  recollections  of  the  royal  governor  was 
the  great  pomp  of  his  grandfather  Elisha's  funeral  on  a 
bleak  December  day  of  1717,  when  the  militia  com 
panies  and  the  chief  dignitaries  of  the  province  marched 
in  stately  procession  to  the  place  of  burial.  As  Elisha 


10  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

left  twelve  children,  the  Hutchinson  family  in  New 
England  was  getting  to  be  a  large  one ;  and  we  find 
many  of  them  in  places  of  distinction  and  trust. 
Elisha's  eldest  son,  Thomas,  became  a  wealthy  mer 
chant  and  ship-owner.  For  twenty-six  years  he  was  a 
member  of  the  council  of  assistants,  and  was  noted  for 
his  resolute  integrity  and  the  fearlessness  with  which 
he  spoke  his  mind  without  regard  to  the  effect  upon 
his  popularity.  He  was  also  noted  for  a  public-spirited 
generosity  so  lavish  as  to  have  made  serious  inroads 
upon  his  princely  fortune.  He  has  been  called l  "  one 
of  Boston's  greatest  benefactors."  At  his  death,  in 
1739,  though  still  a  very  rich  man,  he  lamented  his 
inability  to  provide  for  his  children  on  a  scale  com 
mensurate  with  his  wishes.  One  can  readily  believe 
that  such  families  as  these  men  had  must  have  heavily 
taxed  their  resources.  This  Thomas  Hutchinson's 
children  were  twelve  in  number,  which  seems  to  have 
been  the  normal  rate  of  multiplication  in  that  family. 
His  wife,  Sarah  Foster,  a  lady  of  sterling  character 
and  sense,  was  daughter  of  Colonel  John  Foster,  who 
took  an  active  part  in  the  insurrection  which  overthrew 
the  government  of  Andros.  Their  fourth  child  and 
eldest  surviving  son,  Thomas,  most  illustrious  and  in 
some  respects  most  unhappy  of  this  remarkable  family, 
was  born  on  the  Qth  of  September,  171 1,  in  that  stately 
house  in  the  old  north  end  of  Boston  to  which  our 
attention  will  by  and  by  again  be  directed.  At  five 
years  of  age  the  little  Thomas  began  to  con  his  multi 
plication  table  and  spelling-book  in  the  North  gram 
mar  school  on  Bennet  Street,  which  his  father  had 
lately  founded,  and  over  the  lintel  of  which  were  en- 

1E.  G.  Porter,  "Rambles  in  Old  Boston,"  p.  205. 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     II 

graved  the  arms  of  the  Hutchinsons  of  Lincolnshire. 
Thus  in  daily  going  out  and  in  at  the  door,  as  in  the 
vague  wonder  of  the  grandsire's  stately  funeral,  may 
the  thoughtful  and  impressible  child,  in  somewhat  the 
mood  of  a  generous  little  prince,  have  come  to  feel 
himself  identified  with  the  civic  life  of  Boston.  Of 
adulation  for  such  boys  there  is  usually  enough  and  to 
spare ;  but  Thomas  Hutchinson  was  not  of  the  sort 
that  is  easily  spoiled.  In  the  writings  of  his  later 
years,  amid  all  the  storm  and  stress  of  a  troubled  life, 
nothing  is  more  conspicuous  than  the  absence  of  per 
sonal  vanity  and  the  sweetness  of  temper  with  which 
events  are  judged  aside  from  their  bearings  upon 
himself. 

In  the  simple  school  life  of  those  days  there  were 
not  so  many  subjects  to  be  half  learned  as  now,  and 
boys  became  freshmen  at  a  very  tender  age.  Hutch 
inson  was  barely  sixteen  when  he  received  his  bach 
elor's  degree  at  Harvard,  and  in  after  years  he  frankly 
confessed  that  he  could  not  clearly  see  what  he  had 
done  to  earn  it.  At  first  the  ledger  interested  him 
more  than  the  lexicon.  He  carried  on  a  little  foreign 
trade  by  sending  ventures  in  his  father's  ships,  and 
thus  earned  enough  money  to  have  defrayed  the  whole 
cost  of  his  education,  while  at  the  same  time  he  became 
an  expert  in  bookkeeping.  In  those  days  Harvard 
students  were  graded  according  to  social  position. 
Early  in  the  freshman  year  a  list  of  names  was  hung 
in  the  college  buttery,  and  those  at  the  top  were  al 
lowed  the  best  rooms  and  other  privileges.  Usually 
this  list  remained  without  change,  and  it  is  in  this 
order  that  the  names  appear  on  the  triennial  catalogue 
until  1773,  when  the  democratic  alphabet  took  its 


12  THOMAS  HUTCHINSON 

place.  In  the  class  of  1727,  which  numbered  thirty- 
seven  students,  the  only  names  above  Hutchinson's 
were  those  of  the  two  Brownes,  one  of  whom  was  after 
ward  son-in-law  of  Governor  Burnet  and  father  of  one 
of  the  "mandamus  councillors"  of  1774.  Another 
distinguished  member  of  the  class  was  Jonathan 
Trumbull,  the  great  "  war  governor "  of  Connecticut 
and  valued  friend  of  Washington,  and  according  to 
one  tradition,  the  original  "  Brother  Jonathan." 

It  was  after  Hutchinson  had  left  college,  and  become 
an  apprentice  in  his  father's  counting-room,  that  the 
scholarly  impulse  seized  and  mastered  him.  He  fell 
in  love  with  the  beauties  of  Latin,  and  diligently  used 
his  leisure  evenings  until  he  had  become  fairly  accom 
plished  in  that  language;  to  this  he  soon  added  a 
practical  knowledge  of  French.  Of  history  he  was 
always  fond.  As  a  child  he  would  rather  curl  down 
in  the  chimney  corner  and  pore  over  Church's  "  Indian 
War"  arid  Morton's  "New  England  Memorial"  than 
coast  and  snowball  with  boys  in  the  street;  and  his 
Puritan  education  did  not  prevent  him  from  shedding 
tears  over  the  sufferings  and  death  of  King  Charles. 
The  seventy-fours  and  frigates  that  now  and  then 
sailed  into  Boston  harbour,  stately  and  beautiful,  and 
symbolic  of  England's  empire,  had  a  special  charm  for 
him.  In  their  snug  cabins  he  found  agreeable  com 
panions,  among  them  Lieutenant  Hawke,  afterward  to 
be  known  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  British  sea  kings. 
Still  pleasanter  society  was  found  in  the  household 
of  a  widow  lady,  with  three  beautiful  daughters,  who 
had  lately  moved  to  Boston  from  Rhode  Island.  To 
Margaret  Sanford,  the  second  daughter,  aged  seven 
teen,  Hutchinson  was  married  in  1734.  In  the  course 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     13 

of  the  following  year  he  became  a  member  of  the  Con 
gregational  church  on  Hanover  Street,  known  at  that 
time  as  the  New  Brick  Church.  Throughout  his  life 
he.  was  strictly  religious,  according  to  the  Puritanism 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  which  in  Massachusetts  had 
already  come  to  be  much  more  genial  and  liberal  than 
that  of  the  seventeenth. 

Hutchinson's  public  life  began  soon  after  his  mar 
riage.  In  his  diary  he  tells  how  much  pleasure  he  felt 
when,  in  his  twenty-sixth  year,  he  was  chosen  a  select 
man  for  the  town  of  Boston,  and  a  few  weeks  later  a 
representative  in  the  General  Court.  But  his  public 
career  was  stormy  from  the  outset.  The  people  were 
then  greatly  agitated  over  the  question  of  paper  money. 
As  long  ago  as  1690,  upon  the  return  of  Sir  William 
Phips  from  his  disastrous  expedition  against  Quebec, 
Massachusetts  had  issued  promissory  notes,  called 
bills  of  credit,  in  denominations  from  2  s.  to  £io\ 
they  were  receivable  for  sums  due  to  the  public  treas 
ury.  The  inevitable  results  followed.  The  promissory 
notes  issued  by  a  government  which  had  no  cash  for 
paying  its  debts,  and  because  it  had  no  cash,  of  course 
fell  in  value.  Coin  was  therefore  driven  from  circu 
lation,  and  there  was  a  great  inflation  of  prices,  with 
frequent  and  disastrous  fluctuations.  The  disturbance 
of  trade  became  serious,  and  then,  as  always,  trick- 
some  demagogues  played  upon  the  popular  ignorance, 
which  sought  a  cure  for  the  disease  in  fresh  issues  of 
paper.  Pretty  much  the  same  nonsense  was  talked  in 
1737  as  afterward  in  1786,  and  yet  again  in  1873. 
The  trouble  extended  over  New  England,  and  it  is 
curious  to  observe,  between  three  of  the  states,  the 
same  differences  of  attitude  as  in  the  great  crisis  of 


14  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

1786.  In  Connecticut  the  advocates  of  paper  money 
made  but  little  headway.  In  1709  and  1713  bills  of 
credit  were  issued,  but  in  such  small  amount  and  with 
such  judicious  and  stringent  measures  for  redemption 
that  the  depreciation  was  but  slight,  and  specie  pay 
ments  were  resumed  with  little  difficulty.  In  Rhode 
Island,  on  the  other  hand,  rag  money  won  an  easy 
victory,  and  the  resulting  demoralization  lasted  through 
the  century,  until  after  the  adoption  of  the  Federal 
Constitution.  In  Massachusetts  parties  were  more 
evenly  divided,  but  whereas  in  1786  the  advocates  of 
paper  were  in  the  minority,  in  1737  they  had  a  decided 
majority.  They  were  the  popular  party,  and  especially 
so  after  their  policy  had  led  to  complaints  from  British 
merchants  trading  with  Massachusetts,  until  the  royal 
governor,  Jonathan  Belcher,  was  ordered  by  the  Lords 
of  Trade  to  veto  any  further  issue  of  bills  of  credit. 
A  quarrel  ensued  between  Belcher  and  his  legislature, 
and  as  the  governor  proved  inexorable,  wildcat  bank 
ing  schemes  were  devised  to  meet  the  emergency. 
The  agitation  was  coming  to  a  crisis  when  Hutchin- 
son  took  his  seat  in  the  House.  Upon  all  financial 
questions  he  had  a  remarkably  clear  head,  and  there 
was  nothing  of  the  demagogue  about  him.  He  would 
not  palter  with  a  question  of  public  policy,  or  seek  to 
hide  his  opinions  in  order  to  curry  favour  with  the 
people.  He  was  a  man  to  whom  strong  convictions 
and  dauntless  courage  had  come  by  inheritance,  and 
as  his  great-grandfather  Edward  had  stoutly  opposed 
the  persecution  of  the  Quakers,  so  now  the  great- 
grandson  opposed  the  paper  money  delusion  with 
untiring  zeal.  His  conduct  was  the  more  noteworthy 
in  that  representatives  were  at  that  time  in  Massachu- 


LAST  ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     15 

setts  regarded  as  mere  deputies,  in  duty  bound  to  give 
voice  to  the  wishes  or  whims  of  the  voters  that  sent 
them  to  the  legislature.  The  liberty  accorded  to  them 
of  using  their  own  judgment  was  narrow  indeed.  In 
spite  of  his  independence,  Hutchinson  was  reflected 
in  1738;  but  soon  afterward  in  town  meeting  a  set  of 
instructions  were  reported,  enjoining  it  upon  the  rep 
resentatives  of  Boston  to  vote  for  the  further  emission 
of  paper.  This  measure  was  intended  to  curb  the 
refractory  young  man,  but  it  only  called  him  at  once 
to  his  feet  with  a  powerful  speech,  in  which  he  de 
nounced  the  instructions  as  foolish  and  wicked,  and 
ended  by  flatly  refusing  to  obey  them.  Indignant 
murmurs  ran  about  the  room,  and  one  wrathful  voice 
shouted,  "  Choose  another  representative,  Mr.  Mod 
erator  ! "  But  this  was  too  silly ;  it  was  not  for  the 
presiding  officer  of  a  town  meeting  to  seat  or  unseat 
representatives.  There  was  no  help  for  it  until  next 
year,  when  Hutchinson,  who  had  been  as  good  as  his 
word,  was  defeated  at  the  polls.  About  this  time  a 
typhoid  fever  struck  him  down,  and  for  several  weeks 
he  was  at  death's  door.  He  had  three  very  eminent 
physicians,  either  of  whom  might  have  sat  for  the 
portrait  of  Dr.  Sangrado,  but  by  dint  of  an  ample 
inheritance  of  vitality  he  withstood  both  drugs  and 
disease;  and  presently,  taking  counsel  of  a  sensible 
friend,  threw  physic  to  the  dogs,  and  recovered  strength 
by  means  of  a  judicious  diet  and  horseback  rides  in 
the  country.  One  of  the  doctors  lost  his  temper  and 
stormed  about  empirics  and  quacks  ;  the  others  showed 
more  candour.  When  Hutchinson  found  himself  able 
again  to  attend  to  business,  the  general  confidence  in 
his  uprightness  and  ability  prevailed  over  the  dislike 


1 6  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

of   his  policy,  and  he  was  again    chosen    representa 
tive. 

In  this  year,  1 740,  there  was  an  outburst  of  excitement 
in  Boston  not  unlike  those  that  ushered  in  the  Revo 
lutionary  War.  Of  the  wildcat  banking  schemes,  two 
were  especially  prominent.  The  one  known  as  the 
"  Specie  Bank  "  undertook  to  issue  £i  10,000  in  promis 
sory  notes,  to  be  redeemed  at  the  end  of  fifteen  years 
in  silver  at  20  s.  per  ounce ;  but  it  was  not  altogether 
clear  from  what  quarter  this  desirable  silver  was  to 
come.  There  is  something  pathetic  about  these  per 
sistently  recurring  popular  fancies,  based  on  a  still 
surviving  faith  in  that  old  Norse  deity  to  which  our 
heathen  forefathers  did  reverence  as  the  god  Wish! 
The  rival  scheme,  known  as  the  "  Land  Bank,"  under 
took  to  issue  ,£150,000  in  promissory  notes,  redeemable 
at  the  end  of  twenty  years  in  manufactures  or  produce. 
There  were  about  eight  hundred  stock-holders,  or  part 
ners.  Each  partner  mortgaged  his  house  or  farm  to 
the  company,  and  in  return  for  this  security  borrowed 
the  company's  notes  at  three  per  cent  interest.  He 
was  to  pay  each  year  not  only  the  interest,  but 
one-twentieth  part  of  the  principal ;  and  payment 
might  be  made  either  in  the  same  notes  or  else  in 
merchandise  at  rates  assigned  by  the  directors  of  the 
company.1  The  exploit  of  "  basing "  a  currency  on 
nothing  and  "  floating  "  it  in  the  air  was  never  more 
boldly  attempted.  As  a  means  of  transacting  business 
in  a  commercial  society,  a  note  payable  in  another 
note,  or  in  whatever  commodity  might  after  twenty 
years  happen  to  be  cheapest,  must  have  been  a  device 
of  scarcely  less  efficiency  than  the  far-famed  philoso 
pher's  stone.  A  man  who  sold  one  hundred  bushels 

1  Palfrey,  IV.  550;  Sumner,  "American   Currency,"  29. 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     17 

of  wheat  for  such  a  note  would  have  such  a  precise 
knowledge  of  how  much  it  was  going  to  be  worth  to 
him !  But  in  financial  matters,  where  the  wish  is  so 
apt  to  father  the  thought,  there  seems  to  be  no  delu 
sion  too  gross  to  find  supporters.  By  1 740  the  Land 
Bank  and  the  Specie  Bank  had  both  been  put  into 
operation,  in  spite  of  Governor  Belcher,  who  dissolved 
the  assembly,  cashiered  colonels,  disbenched  justices, 
and  turned  out  office-holders  to  right  and  left,  for  the 
offence  of  receiving  and  passing  the  notes ;  and  pres 
ently  a  flagrant  political  issue  was  raised.  Finding 
that  paper  professing  to  represent  at  least  ,£50,000 
had  been  issued  by  the  Land  Bank,  the  governor 
appealed  to  Parliament  for  help,  and  in  this  he  was 
upheld  by  some  of  the  best  men  in  Massachusetts. 
This  was  in  Walpole's  time,  and  his  Parliaments 
handled  American  affairs  more  delicately  than  those 
of  George  III.;  it  happened  that  a  new  statute  ex 
pressly  for  this  occasion  was  not  needed.  Twenty 
years  before,  upon  the  collapse  of  the  famous  South 
Sea  Bubble,  an  act  had  been  passed  forbidding  the 
incorporation  of  joint  stock  companies  with  more  than 
six  partners.  Parliament  now  simply  declared  that 
this  act  was  always  of  force  in  the  colonies  as  well  as 
in  Great  Britain.  The  two  Massachusetts  companies 
were  thus  abruptly  compelled  to  wind  up  their  affairs 
and  redeem  their  scrip ;  and  as  the  partners  were  held 
individually  liable,  they  incurred  heavy  losses,  and 
would  have  been  quickly  ruined  if  the  claims  against 
them  had  been  rigorously  pressed.  One  of  the  directors 
of  the  Land  Bank,  and  perhaps  the  wealthiest  of  its 
partners,  was  the  elder  Samuel  Adams,  deacon  of  the 
Old  South  Church,  and  one  of  the  justices  of  the 


1 8  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

peace  whom  Belcher  had  displaced.  A  considerable 
part  of  his  fortune  melted  away  in  a  moment,  so  that 
his  famous  son,  who  was  that  summer  in  the  graduat 
ing  class  at  Harvard,  may  be  said  in  a  certain  sense 
to  have  inherited  his  quarrel  with  the  British  gov 
ernment.  It  is  interesting,  in  this  connection,  to  re 
member  how,  three  years  later,  as  a  candidate  for  the 
master's  degree,  young  Samuel  Adams  chose  as  the 
subject  of  his  Latin  thesis  the  question,  "  Whether  it 
be  lawful  to  resist  the  supreme  magistrate  if  the  com 
monwealth  cannot  otherwise  be  preserved  ?  "  and  this 
bold  question  he  answered  in  the  affirmative,  while  the 
new  royal  governor,  Shirley,  as  guest  of  the  college  on 
Commencement  Day,  sat  on  the  platform  and  heard 
him.  The  question  as  to  the  authority  of  Parliament 
over  the  colonies,  which  had  for  a  moment  attracted 
attention  as  long  ago  as  1644,  was  now  more  warmly 
agitated.  The  friends  of  the  Land  Bank  loudly  de 
nounced  the  declaratory  act  of  1 740  as  a  violation  of 
the  chartered  rights  of  Massachusetts,  and  the  bitter 
feelings  engendered  by  this  affair  must  unquestionably 
be  set  down  among  the  causes  of  the  American  Revo 
lution.  Hutchinson's  conduct  at  this  time  was  emi 
nently  wise  and  patriotic.  On  theory  he  was  then,  as 
always,  a  firm  believer  in  the  ultimate  supremacy  of 
Parliament  over  every  part  of  the  British  empire.  He 
understood  better  than  most  Americans  of  his  day 
that  the  supremacy  of  the  crown  was  figurative  rather 
than  real.  He  believed  that  if  sovereignty  over  the 
whole  did  not  reside  somewhere,  the  unity  of  the 
empire  was  virtually  at  an  end ;  and  where  else  could 
such  sovereignty  reside  if  not  in  Parliament  ?  At  the 
same  time  he  shared  with  many  other  able  and  thought- 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     19 

ful  men  in  the  fear  that,  if  the  protecting  hand  of  Great 
Britain  were  once  removed,  the  colonies  would  either 
fall  a  prey  to  France  or  Spain,  or  else  would  tear 
themselves  to  pieces  with  internecine  wars ;  and  who 
is  there  that  can  read  the  solemn  story  of  the  impend 
ing  anarchy  from  which  Washington  and  Madison 
and  Hamilton  saved  the  people  of  these  states  in  the 
anxious  years  that  followed  the  victory  at  Yorktown, 
and  then  say  that  such  forebodings  were  wholly  un 
reasonable.  It  is  easy  to  be  wise  after  the  event ;  but 
in  distributing  the  meed  of  praise  and  blame,  the  his 
torian  must  bear  in  mind  the  aspect  of  things  in  the 
times  which  he  seeks  to  describe,  when  events,  now  as 
familiar  as  our  daily  bread,  were  as  yet  in  the  darkness 
of  the  future,  undreamed  of  and  improbable.  Noth 
ing  can  be  clearer  to-day  than  that  Hutchinson's  fun 
damental  theory  was  wrong.  He  failed  to  take  in  the 
situation,  and  paid  so  heavy  a  penalty  for  his  failure 
that  we  can  well  afford  to  give  him  due  credit  for  the 
wisdom  and  good  feeling  which  in  some  respects  he 
did  show  to  an  eminent  degree.  Like  Dickinson  and 
Burke,  he  realized  that  the  question  of  the  ultimate 
supremacy  of  Parliament  was  a  dangerous  one  to 
insist  upon.  He  saw  distinctly  the  foolishness  of 
enlisting  such  a  wholesome  feeling  as  the  love  of 
self-government  in  behalf  of  such  a  wretched  concern 
as  the  Massachusetts  Land  Bank ;  and  he  earnestly 
advised  Governor  Belcher  to  bide  his  time,  and  trust 
in  accomplishing  its  downfall  in  some  other  way  than 
by  a  direct  appeal  to  Parliament.  Surely  Belcher,  as 
an  ambitious  politician,  undervalued  the  counsel  of 
this  young  man  of  nine  and  twenty,  for  the  immedi 
ate  result  of  his  violent  conduct  was  his  own  downfall ; 


20  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

to  appease  the  popular  indignation,  the  same  British 
government  that  sustained  his  policy  transferred  him 
to  the  inferior  position  of  governor  of  New  Jersey,  and 
put  William  Shirley,  a  man  of  more  tact,  in  his  place. 
But  the  legacy  of  distrust  and  discontent  remained. 
This  was  the  first,  but  not  the  last,  time  that  serious 
trouble  between  England  and  America  was  brought 
about  by  disregarding  Thomas  Hutchinson's  advice. 

In  the  midst  of  this  controversy  Hutchinson  was 
intrusted  by  his  fellow-citizens  with  an  important 
mission.  The  boundary  line  between  Massachusetts 
and  New  Hampshire  had  for  some  time  been  matter 
of  dispute,  and  he  was  sent  over  to  England  to  adjust 
the  affair.  His  conduct  seems  to  have  been  satisfac 
tory,  but  his  diary  gives  little  information  as  to  the 
details  of  what  he  saw  and  did  in  the  mother  country, 
save  that  homesickness  assailed  him,  and  that  in  all 
his  life  he  could  not  "  remember  any  joy  equal  to  that 
of  meeting  his  wife  again,"  after  an  absence  of  thirteen 
months.  On  his  return  he  was  chosen  representative, 
and  was  annually  reflected  until  1749.  In  1746  and 
the  two  following  years  he  was  Speaker  of  the  House, 
and  in  this  capacity  he  came  once  more  into  conflict 
with  popular  prejudice,  and  for  a  long  time  to  come 
enjoyed  a  well-earned  triumph.  By  the  treaty  of  Aix- 
la-Chapelle  in  1748  the  stronghold  of  Louisburg,  which 
New  England  troops  had  captured  in  1745,  was  re 
stored  to  France  in  exchange  for  Madras  in  Hin 
dustan. 

In  an  empire  extending  over  half  the  globe,  it  was 
not  always  easy  to  reconcile  imperial  with  local  inter 
ests.  The  people  of  New  England  were  naturally 
indignant.  Their  capture  of  Louisburg  was  the  first 


LAST  ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     21 

event  that  awakened  Europe  to  the  fact  that  in  the 
western  hemisphere  a  new  military  power  had  come 
into  existence.  The  place  had,  moreover,  a  great 
strategic  value  in  its  relations  to  New  England  and 
Canada,  and  we  can  well  understand  the  wrath  that 
greeted  the  news  that  this  important  conquest  had 
been  bartered  away  for  a  heathen  city  on  the  other 
side  of  the  globe.  To  appease  the  popular  indigna 
tion,  Parliament  voted  that  adequate  compensation 
should  be  made  for  the  expense  of  the  capture  of 
Louisburg.  The  sum  due  to  Massachusetts  in  pursu 
ance  of  this  vote  was  ,£138,649,  which  was  nearly 
equivalent  to  the  total  amount  of  paper  then  circulat 
ing  in  the  colony  at  its  -current  valuation  of  one- 
eleventh  of  its  face  value.  To  attempt  to  raise  such  a 
currency  to  par  was  hopeless.  Hutchinson  proposed 
in  the  assembly  that  Parliament  should  be  asked  to 
send  over  the  money  in  Spanish  dollars,  which  should 
be  used  to  buy  up  and  cancel  the  paper  at  eleven  for 
one.  Whatever  paper  remained  after  this  summary 
process  should  be  called  in  and  redeemed  by  direct 
taxation,  and  any  issue  of  paper  currency  in  future  was 
to  be  forbidden.  "  This  rather  caused  a  smile,"  says 
the  diary,  "  few  apprehending  that  he  was  in  earnest ; 
but  upon  his  appearing  very  serious,  out  of  deference 
to  him  as  Speaker,  they  appointed  a  committee." 
After  a  year  of  hard  work,  Hutchinson's  bill  was 
passed,  amid  the  howls  and  curses  of  the  people  of 
Boston.  "  Such  was  the  infatuation  that  it  was  com 
mon  to  hear  men  wish  the  ship  with  the  silver  on 
board  might  sink  in  her  passage."  They  wanted  no 
money  but  rag  money.  At  the  election  in  1 749  Hutch 
inson  was  defeated  by  a  great  majority,  but  was  imme- 


22  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

diately  chosen  a  member  of  the  council.  People  soon 
found,  to  their  amazement,  that  a  good  hard  dollar  had 
much  greater  purchasing  power  than  a  scrap  of  dirty 
paper  worth  about  nine  cents ;  and  it  was  further 
observed  that,  when  an  inferior  currency  was  once  out 
of  the  way,  coin  would  remain  in  circulation.  The 
revival  of  trade  was  so  steady  and  so  marked  that  the 
tide  of  popular  feeling  turned,  and  Hutchinson  was  as 
much  praised  as  he  had  before  been  abused.  His 
Services  at  this  time  cannot  be  rated  too  highly.  To 
his  clear  insight  and  determined  courage  it  was  largely 
due  that  Massachusetts  was  financially  able  to  enter 
upon  the  Revolutionary  War.  In  1774  Massachusetts 
was  entirely  out  of  debt,  and  her  prosperity  contrasted 
strikingly  with  the  poverty-stricken  condition  of  Rhode 
Island,  which  persisted  in  its  issues  of  inconvertible 
paper.  It  was  then  that  the  West  India  trade  of 
Massachusetts,  a  considerable  part  of  which  had  hith 
erto  been  carried  on  through  Newport,  was  almost 
entirely  transferred  to  Boston  and  Salem. 

About  this  time  Hutchinson  was  cherishing  an  in 
tention  of  giving  up  all  mercantile  business  and  deal 
ing  but  little  more  with  practical  politics.  On  the 
summit  of  Milton  Hill,  seven  miles  south  of  Boston, 
in  one  of  the  most  charming  spots  in  all  that  neigh 
bourhood,  he  had  built  a  fine  house,  which  still  stands 
there,  though  largely  reconstructed/  Sitting  at  its 
broad  windows,  or  walking  upon  the  velvet  lawn 
under  the  shade  of  arching  trees,  one  gets  entrancing 
views  of  the  Neponset  River,  with  its  meadows  far 
below,  and  of  the  broad  expanse  of  the  harbour 
studded  with  its  islands  and  cheery  with  white-winged 
ships'.  To  this  earthly  paradise,  Hutchinson,  having 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     23 

passed  his  fortieth  birthday,  was  hoping  soon  to  retreat 
with  his  wife  and  children,  there  to  spend  the  re 
mainder  of  his  days  in  his  favourite  historical  studies 
and  in  rural  pursuits.  Like  two  eminent  historians  of 
our  own  time,  Mr.  Bancroft  and  Mr.  Parkman,  he  was 
an  expert  at  gardening  and  had  a  passion  for  flowers. 
But  it  is  not  so  easy  to  tear  oneself  away  from  public 
life.  In  the  spring  of  1752,  the  death  of  his  uncle, 
Edward  Hutchinson,  left  vacant  the  offices  of  judge  of 
probate  and  justice  of  common  pleas  for  the  county  of 
Suffolk,  and  the  nephew  accepted  an  appointment 
to  fill  these  places.  Two  years  afterward  he  met  with 
an  overwhelming  affliction  in  the  sudden  death  of  his 
wife,  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven.  For  twenty  years 
their  life  had  been  so  happy  that  the  remembrance  of 
it  kept  him  ever  after  from  the  mere  thought  of  another 
marriage.  He  now  sought  relief  from  sorrow  in  in 
creased  devotion  to  public  affairs.  In  that  same  year, 
1754,  he  was  one  of  the  delegates  to  the  memorable 
Congress  at  Albany,  where  he  was  associated  with 
Franklin  on  the  committee  for  drawing  up  a  plan  of 
union  for  the  thirteen  colonies.  It  is  pleasant  for  a 
moment  to  see  these  two  eminent  men  working  to 
gether  in  a  friendly  spirit,  little  dreaming  of  their 
future  estrangement.  For  the  conception  of  the 
famous  Albany  Plan,  Hutchinson  gives  the  credit 
entirely  to  Franklin.  At  that  time  the  views  of  the 
two  were  in  harmony.  No  one  had  as  yet  thought 
seriously  of  such  a  thing  as  separation  from  the  British 
empire.  If  this  sagacious  scheme  for  a  federal  union 
of  the  thirteen  colonies,  with  a  parliament  or  grand 
council  of  their  own,  a  viceroy  appointed  by  the  crown, 
and  local  self-government  guaranteed  to  the  people, 


24  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

could  have  been  once  put  into  successful  operation,  the 
history  of  the  next  half-century  would  have  been  very 
different  from  what  it  was.  There  would  probably 
have  been  no  Stamp  Act,  no  Committees  of  Corre 
spondence,  no  Boston  Tea  Party,  perhaps  no  Revolu 
tion.  It  is  idle  to  pursue  such  speculations.  A 
general  acquaintance  with  history  would  lead  one  to 
doubt  if,  under  a  federal  union  thus  formed,  and  ham 
pered  by  connection  with  a  remote  imperial  govern 
ment,  the  political  career  of  the  American  people 
could  have  been  worked  out  with  as  much  success  as 
that  which  we  have  actually  witnessed.  But  we  need 
not  go  so  far  as  this,  inasmuch  as  any  plan  whatever 
for  a  federal  union,  in  1754,  was  premature  and  im 
practicable.  Men  like  Franklin  and  Hutchinson 
might  see  the  desirableness  of  such  a  thing,  but 
people  in  general  did  not  see  it.  The  time  for  con 
structive  national  politics  on  this  grand  scale  had  not 
arrived;  and  probably  nothing  but  hardship  would 
have  brought  it.  It  is  only  through  pain  that  higher 
and  higher  forms  of  life,  whether  individual  or  social, 
are  evolved. 

In  1757  Shirley  was  succeeded  in  the  governorship 
of  Massachusetts  by  Thomas  Pownall,  and  the  next 
year  Hutchinson  was  appointed  lieutenant-governor. 
Under  the  management  of  William  Pitt  the  fortunes 
of  the  -world-wide  war  against  France  were  now  sud 
denly  changed.  "  We  are  obliged  to  ask  every  day," 
said  Horace  Walpole,  "  what  new  victory  there  is,  for 
fear  of  losing  one."  Hutchinson's  energy  and  popu 
larity  made  him  of  great  service  in  calling  out  the  mili 
tary  resources  of  Massachusetts,  and  in  these  campaigns 
the  province  began  to  awaken  to  a  consciousness  of 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     25 

its  strength.  Pownall  stayed  only  till  1760,  when  he 
was  replaced  by  Francis  Bernard,  who,  soon  after 
ward,  on  the  death  of  Stephen  Sewall,  appointed 
Hutchinson  chief  justice  of  Massachusetts,  much  to 
the  disgust  of  the  elder  James  Otis,  who  desired  the 
position  and  expected  to  obtain  it.  In  later  days 
Hutchinson  was  charged  with  greed  of  office,  because 
he  was  at  once  judge  of  probate,  member  of  the 
council,  chief  justice,  and  lieutenant-governor.  Still 
later  the  charge  of  avarice  has  been  thoughtlessly 
added  by  writers  forgetful  of  the  facts  that  he  was 
liberal  in  money  matters,  far  too  rich  to  be  attracted 
by  the  meagre  salaries  of  these  laborious  offices,  and 
as  a  scholar  somewhat  inclined  to  be  miserly  of  his 
time.  The  explanation  is  rather  to  be  found  in  his 
inheritance  of  public  spirit  and  rare  ability,  combined 
with  the  general  favour  won  by  genial  manners  and 
unblemished  purity  of  life.  For  twenty  years  he  was 
the  popular  idol  of  Massachusetts,  and  was  wanted  for 
all  sorts  of  things.  There  may  seem  something  strange 
in  appointing  to  the  chief  justiceship  a  man  who  had 
not  practised  at  the  bar,  instead  of  a  lawyer  so  eminent 
as  Otis.  But  Hutchinson's  eight  years'  service  as 
judge  of  a  county  court  had  shown  that,  along  with  a 
judicial  temper,  he  possessed  an  extraordinarily  wide 
and  accurate  knowledge  of  law ;  and  when  Bernard 
appointed  him  chief  justice  he  did  so  at  the  earnest 
request  of  several  leading  members  of  the  bar,  headed 
by  Jeremiah  Gridley,  one  of  the  greatest  lawyers  of 
that  age. 

On  a  December  day  of  1 760,  soon  after  this  appoint 
ment  was  made,  the  news  came  to  Boston  that  King 
George  II.  was  dead  and  his  youthful  grandson  had 


26  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

ascended  the  throne  as  George  III.  No  one  could 
then  have  dreamed  what  this  announcement  portended. 
But  soon  there  followed  the  news  of  Pitt's  resignation, 
and  the  next  three  years  saw  the  abandonment  of  the 
whole  grand  policy  in  support  of  which  British  and 
American  troops  had  for  the  last  time  stood  side  by 
side,  and  its  replacement  by  that  domestic  struggle  for 
supremacy  between  the  king  and  the  Whig  families, 
out  of  which  grew  some  of  the  immediate  causes  of 
the  American  Revolution.  In  the  year  1761  there 
appeared  in  the  horizon  the  little  cloud  like  unto  a 
man's  hand  which  came  before  the  storm.  This  was 
the  famous  argument  on  the  writs  of  assistance  en 
abling  revenue  officers  to  enter  houses  and  search  for 
smuggled  goods.  In  this  case,  in  which  Hutchinson 
presided  and  Gridley  appeared  for  the  crown  officers, 
the  younger  James  Otis  made  the  startling  and  pro 
phetic  speech  in  which  he  showed  successfully  that 
the  issue  of  such  writs  was  contrary  to  the  whole 
spirit  of  the  British  constitution.  According  to  the 
letter  of  the  law,  however,  the  case  was  not  so  clear. 
Such  general  search-warrants  had  been  allowed  by  a 
statute  of  Charles  II.,  another  statute  of  William  III. 
in  general  terms  here  granted  to  revenue  officers  in 
America  like  powers  to  those  they  possessed  in 
England,  and  neither  of  these  statutes  had  been  re 
pealed.  As  to  the  legality  of  the  writs  there  was 
room  for  doubt;  and  Hutchinson  accordingly  sus 
pended  judgment  until  the  next  term,  in  order  to 
obtain  information  from  England  as  to  the  present 
practice  there.  In  accordance  with  advice  from  the 
law  officers  of  the  crown,  the  writs  were  finally  granted. 
Here,  as  in  other  yet  weightier  matters  which  were 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     27 

hereafter  to  come  up  for  fierce  debate,  it  was  becoming 
apparent  that  the  real  question  was  concerned  with 
something  even  more  fundamental  than  the  interpre 
tation  of  the  law.  The  real  question  was  whether 
Americans  were  bound  to  obey  laws  which  they  had 
no  voice  in  making.  An  out-and-out  issue  upon  this 
point  was  something  that  Hutchinson  dreaded  as 
anxiously  as  Clay  and  Calhoun,  in  their  different  ways, 
dreaded  an  out-and-out  issue  upon  the  slavery  question. 
He  earnestly  deprecated  any  action  of  Parliament 
which  should  encroach  upon  American  self-govern 
ment  ;  and  by  the  same  token  he  frowned  upon  such 
action  on  the  part  of  his  fellow-citizens  as  might  irritate 
Parliament,  and  provoke  it  into  asserting  its  power. 
Should  the  issue  be  raised,  he  felt  that  the  choice  was 
between  anarchy  and  submission  to  Parliament,  and 
that  the  very  love  which  he  bore  to  Massachusetts 
must  urge  him  to  a  course  that  was  likely  to  deprive 
him  of  the  esteem  of  valued  friends,  and  heap  cruel 
imputations  upon  his  character  and  motives.  Such 
questions  of  conflicting  allegiance  have  no  pity  for 
men  in  high  positions.  They  were  fraught  with 
sorrow  to  Thomas  Hutchinson  as  to  Robert  Lee,  and 
many  another  noble  and  tender  soul. 

It  was  natural,  therefore,  that  when  the  Grenville 
ministry  began  to  talk  about  a  stamp  act,  Hutchinson 
should  have  done  his  best  to  dissuade  them  from  such 
a  rash  measure.  Here,  as  before,  if  his  advice  had 
been  taken,  much  trouble  might  have  been  avoided. 
As  a  high  public  official,  however,  he  could  not  with 
propriety  blazon  forth  what  he  was  doing,  and  many 
people  misunderstood  him.  He  condemned  the  re 
sistance  which  was  beginning  to  organize  itself  under 


28  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

the  leadership  of  Samuel  Adams,  as  tending  inevita 
bly  toward  counter-resistance  and  strife.  Such  an 
attitude  was  liable  to  be  interpreted  as  indicating 
tacit  approval  of  the  Stamp  Act.  At  this  juncture 
an  unfortunate  incident  served  to  direct  upon  him 
the  rage  of  the  rough  populace  that  swarmed  about 
the  wharves  and  waterside  taverns  of  the  busy  sea 
port.  The  enforcement  of  the  Navigation  Acts  had 
already  made  much  trouble  in  Boston,  and  in  more 
than  one  instance  warehouse  doors  had  been  barri 
caded  and  the  officers  successfully  defied.  Governor 
Bernard  had  become  very  unpopular  through  his  zeal 
in  promoting  seizures  for  illicit  trade,  which  he  was 
supposed  to  have  made  quite  profitable  by  his  share 
in  the  forfeitures.  In  the  ordinary  course  of  business 
concerning  these  matters,  depositions  were  made  be 
fore  Chief  Justice  Hutchinson,  and  attested  by  him. 
In  Bernard's  reports  to  the  Lords  of  Trade,  such 
depositions  were  sometimes  sent  over  to  London  as 
evidence  of  the  state  of  affairs,  and  were  placed  on 
file  at  the  Plantation  Office.  There  it  happened  that 
Briggs  Hallowell,  a  Boston  merchant,  saw  some  of 
these  documents  in  which  John  Rowe  and  others  of 
his  fellow-citizens  were  mentioned  by  name  as  smug 
glers.  Reports  of  this  reached  Boston  in  the  summer 
of  1 765,  on  the  very  eve  of  the  Stamp  Act  riots. 

The  house  in  which  Hutchinson  still  continued  to 
dwell  when  in  town  was  his  father's  home,  where  he 
had  been  born.  It  stood  between  Garden  Court  and 
Hanover  Street,  next  to  the  house  of  Sir  Harry  Frank- 
land,  in  a  neighbourhood  from  which  the  glory  has 
long  since  departed.  At  that  time  it  was  probably 
the  noblest  dwelling-house  in  America,  for  along  with 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     29 

its  rich  furnishings  and  works  of  art  it  contained  the 
superb  library  which  its  owner  had  for  thirty  years 
been  collecting,  and  which  included  many  precious 
manuscripts  illustrating  our  early  history,  —  docu 
ments  for  a  sight  of  which  to-day  the  historical  stu 
dent  would  deem  their  weight  in  diamonds  a  cheap 
price.  On  the  oaken  desk  which  stood  amid  these 
crowded  shelves  the  ink  was  hardly  dry  upon  the  last 
pages  of  the  second  volume  of  that  "  History  of  Massa 
chusetts  "  which  remains  to-day  one  of  the  most  admi 
rable  histories  ever  written  by  an  American.  The 
first  volume,  bringing  the  story  down  to  the  accession 
of  William  III.,  was  published  in  1764;  the  second, 
continuing  the  narrative  to  1 750,  was  now  about  to  go 
to  press,  when  riot  and  confusion  burst  in  upon  the 
scene.  On  the  i4th  of  August  the  Sons  of  Liberty 
paraded  through  the  streets,  in  just  and  rightful  ex 
pression  of  indignation  at  the  Stamp  Act.  Nothing 
violent  was  done,  though  the  beams  of  a  house  just 
going  up,  and  supposed  to  be  intended  for  a  stamp 
office,  were  pulled  down  and  used  for  a  bonfire.  By 
the  next  night  more  disreputable  elements  were  at 
work.  A  mob  surrounded  Hutchinson's  house,  and 
shouted  to  him  to  come  out  and  deny,  if  he  could, 
that  he  had  advised  and  abetted  the  Stamp  Act. 
But  this  he  refused  to  do.  It  was  not  for  him  to 
yield  to  a  demand  made  in  such  a  spirit.  Upon  com 
pulsion,  he,  like  Gabriel  Varden,  would  do  nothing. 
An  aged  merchant  hereupon  harangued  the  crowd, 
and  assured  them  that  they  were  quite  in  the^ wrong; 
Mr.  Hutchinson  disapproved  the  Stamp  Act,  and  was 
in  no  wise  responsible  for  it.  So  for  that  night  all 
passed  quietly,  but  during  the  next  week  vague,  ill- 


30  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

understood  rumours  from  London  wrought  their  effect 
upon  the  mob.  On  the  night  of  the  26th  a  bonfire  in 
King  Street  gathered  a  crowd  together.  First  they 
broke  into  the  cellars  of  the  comptroller  of  customs, 
and  drank  freely  from  the  rum  and  brandy  casks 
stored  there.  Then  a  fury  for  punishing  informers 
seized  them,  and  they  rushed  to  the  chief  justice's 
house.  A  few  blows  with  broadaxes  split  the  doors 
and  window-shutters,  and  the  howling,  cursing  rabble 
swarmed  in.  Their  approach  had  been  heard  some 
minutes  before,  and  Hutchinson  had  told  his  children 
to  flee ;  but  his  eldest  daughter  refused  to  go  without 
him,  and  while  she  was  expostulating  with  him,  the 
doors  were  broken  in.  Carrying  her  in  his  arms,  he 
fled  across  the  garden  to  the  house  of  his  brother-in- 
law,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Mather,  leaving  the  mob  in 
full  possession.  Pictures  were  cut  to  pieces,  mirrors 
smashed,  wearing  apparel  and  silver  stolen,  and  price 
less  books  and  manuscripts  flung  into  the  street.  The 
halts  made  from  time  to  time  in  the  well-stocked  wine- 
bins  served  to  keep  up  and  enhance  the  fury,  until 
before  daybreak  even  the  partition  walls  had  been 
partly  torn  down,  and  great  breaches  had  been  hacked 
in  the  brickwork.  By  sunrise  the  crowd  had  dis 
persed,  and  friendly  hands  had  begun  searching  for 
the  treasures  of  the  ruined  library.  The  manuscript 
of  the  second  volume  of  the  history,  scattered  hither 
and  thither,  and  drenched  in  a  midnight  shower,  was 
picked  up  and  carefully  put  together  by  the  Rev. 
Andrew  Eliot,  so  that  the  author  found  little  difficulty 
in  restoring  it,  and  it  was  published  two  years  later. 

The  next  morning,  before  Governor  Bernard  could 
summon  the  council,  a  huge  town  meeting  in  Faneuil 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     31 

Hall  declared  by  a  unanimous  vote  its  abhorrence  of 
the  shameful  work  of  the  night.  It  was  the  opening- 
day  of  the  session  of  court,  and  the  chief  justice,  whose 
wardrobe  had  perished,  came  to  the  bench  in  his  loose- 
gown,  and  with  the  quiet  dignity  that  never  deserted 
him  pointed  out  to  the  crowded  audience  the  wicked 
ness  of  the  misunderstanding  of  which  he  had  been 
made  the  victim.  Court  adjourned  till  order  could  be 
restored.  Town  meetings  throughout  Massachusetts 
condemned  the  mob.  Several  ringleaders  were  arrested 
and  sent  to  jail,  but  another  mob  released  them.  The 
disorder  was  not  fully  abated  until  the  Qth  of  Septem 
ber,  when  news  came  from  England  that  the  Grenville 
ministry  had  fallen.  The  advent  of  Lord  Rocking- 
ham  as  prime  minister  gave  hope  that  the  Stamp  Act 
policy  would  be  reconsidered,  and  for  two  years  quiet 
was  restored  in  America.  A  bill  for  the  relief  of  per 
sons  who  had  suffered  from  the  riots  was  passed  by 
the  Massachusetts  assembly,  and  Hutchinson's  dam 
ages  were  repaired,  so  far  as  might  be,  in  money.  The 
loss  of  materials  for  the  student  of  American  history 
was  something  that  could  never  be  repaired. 

In  the  year  of  the  Stamp  Act  Samuel  Adams  was 
chosen  a  member  of  the  legislature.  The  exclusion 
of  crown  officers  from  a  seat  in  either  branch  of  that 
body  had  for  some  time  been  one  of  his  favourite  ideas, 
and  in  1766  he  so  far  succeeded  in  realizing  it  that 
Hutchinson,  with  four  others,  failed  to  be  elected  to 
the  council.  The  last  two  years  of  Bernard's  admin 
istration,  1768  and  1769,  were  full  of  strife  and  bitter 
ness.  The  news  of  Charles  Townshend's  measures 
led  to  the  famous  resolutions  of  1768  and  the  circular 
letter  inviting  the  other  colonies  to  resistance.  Then 


32  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

came  the  demand  from  the  ministry  that  the  circular 
letter  should  be  rescinded,  to  which  the  Massachusetts 
assembly  replied  with  a  flat  refusal,  and  was  forthwith 
turned  out  of  doors  by  the  governor.  Then,  in  order 
to  catch  Samuel  Adams  and  carry  him  to  England  for 
trial,  there  was  the  revival  of  a  half-forgotten  act  of 
Henry  VIII.,  about  treason  committed  beyond  sea. 
The  two  regiments  which  were  landed  in  Boston  in 
the  autumn  of  1768  came  at  Bernard's  solicitation,  to 
aid  the  crown  officers  in  preserving  order.  Such  an 
event  as  the  sacking  of  Hutchinson's  house  went  far 
toward  creating  an  impression  in  England  that  such 
assistance  was  necessary.  The  intention  of  the  gov 
ernment  in  sending  the  troops  was  no  doubt  innocent 
enough ;  but  it  would  have  been  hard  to  hit  upon  a 
more  dangerous  measure,  or  one  revealing  a  more 
hopeless  ignorance  of  the  American  character.  It 
could  not  be  regarded  otherwise  than  as  a  threat,  and 
it  put  Great  Britain  into  somewhat  the  attitude  of  a 
man  who,  in  the  course  of  an  argument  with  his  friend, 
suddenly  draws  a  pistol.  An  intelligent  and  disinter 
ested  government  might  have  asked  itself  the  question 
whether  it  were  a  wise  policy  to  keep  up  an  odious 
revenue  law  that  in  such  an  orderly  town  as  Boston 
made  it  necessary  to  introduce  soldiers  to  prevent  dis 
order.  But  not  only  was  the  government  neither  in 
telligent  nor  disinterested,  but  it  was  entirely  natural 
to  argue  that  a  town  whose  magistrates  could  not  pre 
vent  the  sacking  of  private  houses  did  not  deserve 
to  be  called  an  orderly  town.  As  for  Hutchinson 
himself,  he  would  have  been  more  than  human  if  such 
considerations  had  not  coloured  his  own  view  of  the 
case,  although  the  serenity  and  sweetness  of  temper 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     33 

with  which,  in  his  history,  as  also  in  his  private  diary, 
he  speaks  of  his  personal  hardships,  are  very  remark 
able.  The  pages  of  these  charming  books  show  the 
thoroughbred  Christian  gentleman.  But  as  a  states 
man  he  was  far  from  reading  the  temper  of  the  people 
correctly.  He  knew  that  in  the  violence  which  touched 
him  so  nearly  the  sympathy  of  the  people  was  not  with 
the  rioters.  He  felt  that  all  the  troubles  were  due  to 
the  unreasonable  obstinacy  of  a  few  such  men  as  James 
Otis  and  Samuel  Adams ;  and  that  if  these  men  could 
be  defeated,  the  general  sense  of  the  people  would  be 
in  favour  of  peace  and  quiet.  In  this  opinion  he  mis 
conceived  the  facts  of  the  situation  very  much  as  they 
are  misconceived  to-day  by  such  well-meaning  British 
writers  as  Mr.  Lecky  and  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith.  With 
all  their  fairness  toward  America,  these  writers  are 
still  blind  to  the  fact  that  the  issues  raised  by  George 
III.  and  his  ministers  —  in  the  Stamp  Act  of  1765,  in 
the  Townshend  acts  of  1767,  in  the  measures  concern 
ing  the  salaries  of  crown  officers  in  1772,  and  finally 
in  the  vindictive  acts  of  1774  after  the  Boston  Tea 
Party  —  were  one  and  all  of  them  such  issues  as  the 
Americans  could  not  for  a  moment  accept  without 
shamefully  abandoning  the  principles  of  free  govern 
ment  for  which  the  whole  English  race  has  been  man 
fully  striving  since  the  days  of  Magna  Charta.  If 
British  historians,  sincerely  desirous  of  doing  justice 
to  America,  find  it  hard  to  understand  these  things 
to-day,  perhaps  it  was  not  strange  that  some  able  men 
like  Hutchinson  did  not  understand  them  at  a  time 
when  the  baleful  policy  and  selfish  aims  of  George  III. 
were  still  dimly  viewed  through  the  mists  of  contem 
porary  prejudice  and  passion.  Hutchinson's  own 


34  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

views  were  thus  expressed  in  a  private  letter  to  a 
friend  in  Dublin,  early  in  1772,  "  It  is  not  likely 
that  the  American  colonies  will  remain  part  of  the 
British  dominion  another  century,  but  while  they  do 
remain,  the  supreme  absolute  legislative  power  must 
remain  entire,  to  be  exercised  upon  the  colonies  so 
far  as  is  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  its  own 
authority  and  the  general  weal  of  the  empire,  and  no 
farther."  This  was  moderately  expressed  ;  probably  at 
that  moment  neither  Dickinson  nor  Franklin  would 
have  taken  serious  exception  to  it.  Yet  the  argument 
could  not  be  pushed  without  involving  the  surrender 
of  the  American  cause.  It  does  not  appear  that 
Hutchinson  was  anxious  to  push  it,  or  that  he  courted 
the  position  of  chief  upholder  of  Toryism  in  America; 
but  the  attitude  of  mind  that  went  naturally  along 
with  his  official  position  could  hardly  fail  to  drive  him 
in  this  direction.  In  the  summer  of  1769  Governor 
Bernard  was  recalled  to  England,  to  appease  the  people 
of  Massachusetts,  while  his  own  feelings  were  assuaged 
with  a  baronetcy.  Before  his  ship  had  weighed  anchor 
in  the  harbour,  the  sound  of  clanging  bells  and  boom 
ing  cannon  told  him  of  the  fierce  rejoicings  over  his 
departure.  The  administration  of  affairs  was  left  in 
the  hands  of  Hutchinson  as  lieutenant-governor,  and 
it  was  not  long  before  the  course  of  events  was  such 
as  to  show,  with  vivid  and  startling  suddenness,  the 
false  position  into  which  he  was  drifting.  In  the  fatal 
squabble  between  soldiers  and  townspeople  on  that 
memorable  moonlit  evening  in  March,  1770,  he  showed 
vigour  and  discretion,  and  but  for  his  prompt  arrest 
of  the  offending  soldiers  the  affair  might  have  grown 
into  something  which  it  would  have  been  no  misnomer 


LAST  ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     35 

to  call  a  "massacre."  But  next  morning,  when  he 
looked  out  from  the  window  of  the  town  house,  and 
saw  the  surging  crowd  of  people  in  King  Street,  on 
their  way  from  Faneuil  Hall  to  the  Old  South  Church, 
and  when  he  exclaimed  that  their  spirit  seemed  to  be 
as  high  as  that  of  their  ancestors  when  they  rose 
against  Andros,  one  cannot  but  wonder  if  his  thoughts 
did  not  go  back  for  a  moment  to  the  winter  day  when 
as  a  little  child  he  had  stood  by  the  grave  of  the  grand 
father  who  had  stoutly  opposed  that  agent  of  tyranny. 
Did  it  seem  quite  right  for  the  grandson,  with  whatso 
ever  honest  intent,  to  be  standing  in  Andros's  place  ? 
A  few  hours  later,  when  Samuel  Adams,  for  the  second 
time  that  day,  came  into  the  council  chamber,  with  the 
final  message  from  the  people,  and  with  uplifted  finger 
solemnly  commanded  Hutchinson  to  remove  all  sol 
diery  from  Boston,  the  king's  representative  obeyed. 
That  his  knees  trembled  and  his  cheeks  grew  pale, 
as  Adams  afterward  told,  we  may  well  believe.  Not 
from  fear,  however,  but  more  likely  from  a  sudden 
sickening  sense  of  the  odium  of  his  position.  Not 
long  afterward  he  wrote  to  London,  asking  to  be  re 
lieved  of  all  further  share  in  the  work  of  administration. 
But  before  the  letter  was  received  his  commission  as 
royal  governor  of  Massachusetts  had  been  drawn  up. 
Lord  North  was  at  this  time  earnest  in  the  wish  to 
pursue  a  conciliatory  policy,  and  Hutchinson  was 
appointed  governor  because  it  was  supposed  that  the 
people  would  prefer  his  administration.  Indeed,  except 
for  the  unfortunate  affray  in  King  Street,  the  departure 
of  Bernard  already  seemed  to  have  done  much  to  clear 
the  air.  After  the  troops  had  been  sent  out  to  the 
Castle,  there  was  a  general  sense  of  relief,  and  many 


36  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

people  entertained  hopes  that  the  troubles  were  over. 
In  reply  to  Hutchinson's  letter,  the  ministry  told  him 
to  take  his  own  time  to  consider  whether  or  not  he 
would  accept  the  appointment ;  and  it  was  during  this 
lull  in  the  storm,  toward  the  end  of  1770,  that  he  de 
cided  to  accept  it.  He  might  well  believe  that  under 
his  own  management  of  affairs  fewer  occasions  for  dis 
sension  would  arise.  When  the  storm  arose  again,  it 
burst  from  a  quarter  where  no  one  would  have  looked 
for  it. 

For  the  two  years  following  the  so-called  "  Boston 
Massacre,"  Hutchinson's  administration  was  compara 
tively  quiet.  In  the  summer  of  1772  the  excitement 
again  rose  to  fever  heat,  over  the  royal  order  that  the 
salaries  of  the  judges  should  henceforth  be  paid  by 
the  crown.  This  measure,  striking  directly  at  the 
independence  of  the  judiciary,  led  Samuel  Adams  to 
the  revolutionary  step  of  organizing  the  famous  Com 
mittees  of  Correspondence.  Hutchinson  at  first  under 
estimated  the  importance  of  this  step,  but  presently, 
taking  alarm  at  the  progress  which  resistance  to  the 
government  was  making,  he  tried  to  check  it  by  a 
sober  appeal  to  reason.  In  January,  1773,  he  sent  a 
message  to  the  legislature,  containing  an  elaborate  and 
masterly  statement  of  the  doctrine  of  the  supremacy 
of  Parliament  over  the  whole  British  empire.  It  was 
a  document  of  prodigious  learning  and  written  in 
excellent  temper.  Its  knowledge  of  law  was  worthy 
of  Lord  Mansfield,  who  expressed  the  warmest  admi 
ration  for  it.  It  was  widely  read  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic,  and  Whigs  as  well  as  Tories  admitted  its 
power.  But  Hutchinson's  great  antagonist  was  equal 
to  the  occasion.  Never  did  the  acuteness,  the  strong 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     37 

sense,  and  the  dialectic  skill  of  Samuel  Adams  show 
to  better  advantage  than  in  the  reply  which  he  drew 
up  for  the  legislature.  Its  force  was  such  as  to  make 
the  governor  doubt  whether  he  had  done  wisely,  after 
all,  in  opening  an  argument  on  the  subject.  He  sent 
in  an  elaborate  rejoinder,  to  which  Adams  again 
replied,  and  for  some  time  the  controversy  was  sus 
tained  with  dignity  on  both  sides.  Whatever  opinions 
were  held  as  to  the  merits  of  the  arguments,  the  gov 
ernor  certainly  gained  in  personal  popularity  during 
the  winter,  and  still  more  in  the  spring,  when  he  met 
the  governor  of  New  York  at  Hartford,  and  succeeded 
in  adjusting  the  long-disputed  boundary  line  between 
New  York  and  Massachusetts,  to  the  entire  satisfac 
tion  of  the  latter  colony. 

This  was  the  last  moment  of  popular  favour  that 
Hutchinson  was  ever  to  know.  The  skein  of  events 
that  were  to  compass  his  downfall  had  already  unwound 
itself  in  London.  For  several  years  a  private  and 
unofficial  correspondence  had  been  kept  up  between 
Hutchinson  and  other  officers  of  the  crown  in  Massa 
chusetts,  on  the  one  hand,  and  Thomas  Whately,  who 
had  formerly  been  private  secretary  to  George  Grenville, 
on  the  other.  Whately  was  a  friend  to  America,  and 
disapproved  of  the  king's  policy.  Besides  Hutchinson, 
the  chief  writers  were  his  brother-in-law,  Andrew 
Oliver,  who  was  now  associated  with  him  as  lieutenant- 
governor,  and  Charles  Paxton,  one  of  the  revenue 
officers  in  Boston.  In  these  letters  Hutchinson  freely 
commented  on  the  policy  of  Samuel  Adams  and  other 
popular  leaders  as  seditious  in  tendency ;  he  doubted 
if  it  were  practicable  for  a  colony  removed  by  three 
thousand  miles  of  ocean  to  enjoy  all  the  liberties  of 


38  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

the  mother  country  without  severing  its  connection 
with  her ;  and  he  had  therefore  reluctantly  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  Massachusetts  must  submit  to  "  an 
abridgment  of  what  are  called  English  liberties."  In 
this  there  was  nothing  that  he  had  not  said  again  and 
again  in  public,  and  amply  explained  in  his  famous 
message  to  the  assembly.  But  Oliver  went  farther, 
and  urged  that  judges  and  other  crown  officers  should 
have  fixed  salaries  assigned  and  paid  by  the  crown,  so 
as  to  become  independent  of  popular  favour.  Paxton 
enlarged  upon  the  turbulence  of  the  people  of  Boston, 
and  thought  two  or  three  regiments  needful  for  pre 
serving  order.  The  letters  were  written  independently 
on  different  occasions,  and  the  suggestions  were 
doubtless  made  in  perfect  good  faith.  In  June,  1772, 
Thomas  Whately  died,  and  all  his  papers  passed  into 
the  custody  of  William,  his  brother  and  executor.  In 
the  following  December,  before  William  Whately  had 
opened  or  looked  over  the  packet  of  letters  from 
Massachusetts,  it  was  found  that  they  had  been  pur 
loined  by  some  person  unknown.  It  is  not  certain 
that  the  letters  had  ever  really  passed  into  William 
Whately 's  hands.  They  may  have  been  left  lying  in 
some  place  where  they  may  have  attracted  the  notice 
of  some  curious  busybody,  who  forthwith  laid  hands 
upon  them.  This  has  never  been  satisfactorily  cleared 
up.  At  all  events  they  were  carried  to  Dr.  Franklin,  as 
containing  political  intelligence  that  might  prove  im 
portant.  Franklin  was  then  the  agent  at  the  British 
court,  representing  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  New 
Jersey,  and  Georgia.  The  dispute  over  the  salaries  of 
the  judges  was  then  raging  in  Massachusetts.  The 
judges  had  been  threatened  with  impeachment  should 


LAST   ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     39 

they  dare  to  receive  a  penny  from  the  royal  treasury, 
and  at  their  head  was  Andrew  Oliver's  younger  brother 
Peter,  chief  justice  of  Massachusetts.  As  agent  for 
the  colony,  Franklin  felt  it  his  duty  to  give  information 
of  the  contents  of  the  letters  now  laid  before  him. 
Although  they  purported  to  be  merely  a  private  corre 
spondence,  it  appeared  to  him  that  they  were  written 
by  public  officers  to  a  person  in  public  station,  on 
public  affairs,  and  intended  to  procure  public  measures ; 
their  tendency,  he  thought,  was  to  incense  the  mother 
country  against  her  colonies.  Franklin  was  doubtless 
mistaken  in  this,  but  he  felt  as  Walsingham  might 
have  felt  on  suddenly  discovering,  in  private  and  con 
fidential  papers,  the  clew  to  some  popish  plot  against 
the  life  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  From  the  person  who 
brought  him  the  letters  he  got  permission  to  send 
them  to  Massachusetts,  on  condition  that  they  should 
be  shown  only  to  a  few  people  in  authority,  that  they 
should  not  be  copied  or  printed,  that  they  should 
presently  be  returned,  and  that  the  name  of  the  per 
son  from  whom  they  were  obtained  should  never  be 
disclosed.  This  last  condition  was  thoroughly  ful 
filled.  The  others  must  have  been  felt  to  be  mainly  a 
matter  of  form;  it  was  obvious  that,  though  they 
might  be  literally  complied  writh,  their  spirit  would 
inevitably  be  violated.  The  letters  were  sent  to  the 
proper  person,  Thomas  Gushing,  speaker  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  assembly,  and  he  showed  them  to  Hancock, 
Hawley,  and  the  two  Adamses.  To  these  gentlemen 
it  could  have  been  no  new  discovery  that  Hutchinson 
and  Oliver  held  such  opinions  as  were  expressed  in 
the  letters ;  but  the  documents  seemed  to  furnish 
tangible  proof  of  what  had  long  been  vaguely  sur- 


40  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

mised,  that  the  governor  and  his  lieutenant  were  plot 
ting  against  the  liberties  of  Massachusetts.  They 
were  soon  talked  about  at  every  town  meeting  and  on 
every  street  corner.  The  assembly  twitted  Hutchin- 
son  with  them,  and  asked  for  copies  of  these  and  other 
such  papers  as  he  might  see  fit  to  communicate.  He 
replied,  somewhat  sarcastically,  "  If  you  desire  copies 
with  a  view  to  make  them  public,  the  originals  are 
more  proper  for  the  purpose  than  any  copies."  Mis 
taken  as  Hutchinson's  policy  was,  his  conscience 
acquitted  him  of  any  treasonable  purpose,  and  he  must 
naturally  have  preferred  to  have  people  judge  him  by 
what  he  had  really  written,  rather  than  by  vague  and 
distorted  rumours.  His  reply  was  taken  as  sufficient 
warrant  for  printing  the  letters,  and  they  were  soon 
in  the  possession  of  every  reader  in  England  or 
America  who  could  afford  sixpence  for  a  political 
tract.  On  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  they  aroused 
as  much  excitement  as  on  this,  and  William  Whately 
became  concerned  to  know  who  could  have  stolen  the 
letters.  On  very  slight  evidence  he  charged  a  Mr. 
Temple  with  the  theft,  and  a  duel  ensued,  in  which 
Whately  was  dangerously  wounded.  Hearing  of  this 
affair,  Franklin  published  a  card,  in  which  he  avowed 
his  own  share  in  the  transaction,  and  in  a  measure 
screened  everybody  else  by  drawing  the  full  torrent  of 
wrath  and  abuse  upon  himself.  All  the  ill-suppressed 
spleen  of  the  king's  friends  was  at  once  discharged 
upon  him. 

Meanwhile  in  Massachusetts  the  excitement  was 
furious.  The  autumn  of  1773  had  arrived,  and  with 
it  Lord  Dartmouth's  tea  ships,  and  Hutchinson  was 
brought  into  an  attitude  of  hostility  to  the  people  such 


LAST  ROYAL  GOVERNOR  OF  MASSACHUSETTS     41 

as  he  could  not  have  foreseen  when  he  accepted  the 
governorship.  It  was  mainly  his  stubborn  courage 
that  kept  the  consignees  of  the  tea  from  resigning 
their  commissions  in  Boston,  as  the  consignees  in 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Charleston  had  done. 
This  made  Boston  the  battle-ground  upon  which  the 
tea  question  was  to  end  in  a  flat  defiance  of  the  British 
government.  Hutchinson  tried  to  avoid  the  difficulty 
by  advising  the  consignees  to  order  the  vessels  on 
their  arrival  to  anchor  below  the  Castle,  so  that  if  it 
should  seem  best  not  to  land  the  tea  they  might  go  to 
sea  again.  When  the  first  ship  arrived,  she  was 
anchored  accordingly,  but  it  happened  that  she  had 
other  goods  on  board  which  some  merchants  in  town 
were  needing,  and  a  committee,  headed  by  Samuel 
Adams,  ordered  the  captain  to  bring  his  ship  to  dock, 
in  order  to  land  these  goods.  This  brought  the  vessel 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  custom-house,  and  when 
the  officers  refused  to  give  her  a  clearance  until  she 
had  landed  the  tea  also,  there  was  no  way  of  getting 
her  out  to  sea  without  a  pass  from  the  governor.  But 
Hutchinson  felt  that  granting  a  pass  for  a  ship  until 
she  had  been  duly  cleared  at  the  custom-house  would 
be  a  violation  of  his  oath  of  office.  The  situation  was 
thus  a  complete  deadlock,  and  for  the  popular  party 
there  was  no  way  out  except  in  the  destruction  of  the 
tea. 

The  antagonism  between  governor  and  people,  which 
thus  culminated  in  the  first  great  crisis  of  the  American 
Revolution,  had  been  immeasurably  enhanced  by  the 
adroit  use  which  had  been  made  of  the  Whately  letters. 
One  cannot,  in  this  particular,  view  the  conduct  of 
Samuel  Adams  and  his  friends  with  entire  approval. 


42  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

As  Dr.  Ellis  has  well  said,  it  was  a  case  of  "  the  most 
vehement  possible  cry  with  the  slightest  possible 
amount  of  wool."  Strong  emphasis  was  laid  upon  the 
phrase  "  abridgment  of  what  are  called  English  liber 
ties,"  and  serious  injustice  was  done  by  tearing  it  from 
its  context.  Nothing  could  show  this  more  clearly 
than  the  governor's  own  frank  and  manly  statement : 
"  I  differ  in  my  principles  from  the  present  leaders  of 
the  people.  ...  I  think  that  by  the  constitution  of 
the  colonies  the  Parliament  has  a  supreme  authority 
over  them.  I  have  nevertheless  always  been  an  advo 
cate  for  as  large  a  power  of  legislation  within  each 
colony  as  can  consist  with  a  supreme  control.  I  have 
declared  against  a  forcible  opposition  to  the  execution 
of  acts  of  Parliament  which  have  laid  taxes  on  the 
people  of  America;  I  have,  notwithstanding,  ever 
wished  that  such  acts  might  not  be  made  as  the 
Stamp  Act  in  particular.  I  have  done  everything  in 
my  power  that  they  might  be  repealed.  I  do  not  see 
how  the  people  in  the  colonies  can  enjoy  every  liberty 
which  the  people  in  England  enjoy,  because  in  Eng 
land  every  man  may  be  represented  in  Parliament 
.  .  .  ;  but  in  the  colonies,  the  people,  I  conceive,  can 
not  have  representatives  in  Parliament  to  any  advan 
tage.  It  gives  me  pain  when  I  think  it  must  be  so. 
I  wish  also  that  we  may  enjoy  every  privilege  of  an 
Englishman  which  our  remote  situation  will  admit  of. 
These  are  sentiments  which  I  have  without  reserve 
declared  among  my  private  friends,  in  my  speeches 
and  messages  to  the  General  Court,  in  my  correspond 
ence  with  the  ministers  of  state,  and  I  have  published 
them  to  the  world  in  my  history ;  and  yet  I  have 
been  'declared  an  enemy  and  a  traitor  to  my  country 


LAST   ROYAL  GOVERNOR  OF   MASSACHUSETTS     43 

because  in  my  private  letters  I  have  discovered  the 
same  sentiments,  for  everything  else  asserted  to  be 
contained  in  those  letters  (I  mean  of  mine)  unfriendly 
to  the  country,  I  must  deny  as  altogether  groundless 
and  false."  By  this  last  qualification  the  governor 
shows  himself  aware  of  the  cruel  injustice  wrought  in 
holding  him  responsible  for  everything  that  Paxton 
and  Oliver  had  said.  The  letters,  when  published  to 
gether  in  a  single  pamphlet,  were  read  as  containing 
from  first  to  last  the  sentiments  of  Hutchinson.  In 
the  popular  excitement  the  fact  that  they  were  not  all 
his  letters  was  lost  sight  of;  and  by  a  wild  leap  of 
inference  not  uncommon  in  such  cases,  people  soon 
reached  the  conclusion  that  the  conduct  of  the  British 
government  for  the  past  ten  years  had  been  secretly 
instigated  by  him  ;  that  he  was  to  blame  for  the  Stamp 
Act,  the  sending  of  troops  to  Boston,  the  tea  measures, 
and  everything.  It  was  this  misunderstanding  that 
heaped  upon  Hutchinson's  name  the  load  of  oppro 
brium  which  it  has  had  to  carry  for  a  hundred  years. 
His  mistaken  political  attitude  would  not  of  itself  have 
sufficed  to  call  forth  such  intense  bitterness  of  feeling. 
The  erroneousness  of  his  policy  is  even  clearer  to  us 
than  to  his  contemporaries,  for  with  the  lapse  of  time 
it  has  been  more  and  more  completely  refuted  by  the 
unanswerable  logic  of  events.  But  we  can  also  see 
how  grievously  he  was  misjudged,  since  we  know  that 
he  was  not  the  underhanded  schemer  that  men  sup 
posed  him  to  be.  Never  has  there  been  a  more 
memorable  illustration  of  the  wrong  and  suffering  that 
is  apt  to  be  wrought  in  all  directions  in  a  period  of 
revolutionary  excitement  than  the  fact  that  during  the 
autumn  of  1773  one  of  the  purest  and  most  high- 


44  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

minded  citizens  of  Massachusetts  was  regarded  by  so 
many  other  pure  and  high-minded  citizens  as  little 
better  than  a  traitor.  Acting  upon  this  belief  the 
assembly,  sometime  before  the  crisis  of  the  Tea 
Party,  had  already  despatched  a  memorial  across  the 
ocean,  beseeching  his  Majesty  to  remove  Governor 
Hutchinson  and  Lieutenant-governor  Oliver  from 
office. 

In  January,  1774,  the  petition  was  laid  before  the 
privy  council,  in  the  presence  of  a  large  and  brilliant 
gathering  of  spectators.  Never  before  had  so  many 
lords  been  seen  in  that  chamber  at  one  time.  The 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was  there,  and  Lord  Shel- 
burne,  and  Edmund  Burke ;  and  there,  too,  were  to 
be  seen  the  illustrious  Dr.  Priestley  and  youthful  Jer 
emy  Bentham.  At  the  head  of  the  table  sat  the  Lord 
President  Gower,  and  in  the  chimney  corner  stood  an 
old  man  of  eight  and  sixty,  with  spectacles  and  flow 
ing  wig,  dressed  in  a  suit  of  dark  Manchester  velvet. 
This  was  Dr.  Franklin,  to  whose  part  it  fell,  as  agent 
for  the  Massachusetts  assembly,  to  present  its  petition. 
The  news  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party  had  just  arrived 
in  London,  and  people's  wrath  waxed  hot  against  the 
Americans.  The  solicitor-general,  David  Wedder- 
burn,  instead  of  discussing  the  petition  on  its  merits, 
broke  out  with  a  scurrilous  invective  against  Frank 
lin,  whom  he  accused,  if  not  of  actually  stealing  the 
Whately  letters,  at  least  of  basely  meddling  with  pri 
vate  correspondence  from  the  lowest  of  motives,  to 
get  Hutchinson  dismissed  from  office  and  secure  for 
himself  the  governorship  of  Massachusetts.  Such  a 
man,  said  Wedderburn,  has  forfeited  forever  the  re 
spect  of  his  fellow-creatures,  and  should  never  dare 


LAST  ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS    45 

again  to  show  his  face  in  society,  —  this  man  of  letters, 
forsooth!  "a  man  of  three  letters."  At  this  obvious 
allusion  to  the  old  Roman  slang  expression  preserved 
in  Plautus,  where  "a  man  of  three  letters"  is  f-u-r,  a 
thief,  there  were  loud  cries  of  "  Hear,  hear !  "  Of  the 
members  of  government  present,  Lord  North  alone 
preserved  his  unfailing  decorum ;  the  others  laughed 
and  applauded,  while  Franklin  stood  as  unmoved  as 
the  moon  at  the  baying  of  dogs.  His  conduct  had, 
perhaps,  been  hardly  defensible,  and  it  had  probably 
worked  more  harm  than  good,  but  his  conscience  was 
certainly  quite  clear ;  and  he  could  not  but  despise  the 
snarls  of  such  a  cur  as  Wedderburn,  whom  the  king, 
while  fain  to  use  him  as  a  tool,  felt  free  to  call  the  big 
gest  knave  in  the  realm.  Ralph  Izard,  the  hot-blooded 
South  Carolinian,  who  listened  to  the  insulting  speech, 
afterward  declared  that  if  it  had  been  aimed  at  him, 
he  would  have  answered  on  the  spot  with  a  challenge. 
Lord  Shelburne  wrote  to  Lord  Chatham  that  the  in 
decency  of  the  affair  was  such  as  would  have  disgraced 
an  ordinary  election  contest.  Before  the  meeting  was 
adjourned,  Wedderburn  stepped  up  to  say  good-morn 
ing  to  Dr.  Priestley ;  but  the  great  man  of  science, 
kindest  and  most  gentle  of  mortals,  indignantly  turned 
his  back.  Ah,  quoth  Immanuel  Kant,  in  his  study  at 
distant  Konigsberg,  as  he  smoked  his  evening  pipe 
and  listened  to  the  story,  we  have  heard  before  how 
Prometheus,  who  brought  fire  from  heaven,  was  teased 
by  an  unclean  bird.  The  affair  ended  as  might  have 
been  foreseen.  The  Massachusetts  petition  was  not 
simply  rejected,  but  condemned  as  scandalous ;  and 
next  day  Franklin  was  dismissed  from  his  office  of 
postmaster-general  for  America. 


46  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

Events,  however,  soon  brought  about  practically 
Hutchinson's  removal.  When  in  April  Parliament 
made  up  its  mind,  in  retaliation  for  the  Tea  Party,  to 
annul  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  and  starve  the 
town  of  Boston  into  submission,  it  was  clear  that  such 
a  man  as  Hutch inson  would  not  serve  the  purpose. 
For  such  measures  of  martial  law  a  soldier  was  likely 
to  be  needed,  and  the  work  was  intrusted  to  Thomas 
Gage.  This  change  afforded  Hutchinson  the  oppor 
tunity  he  had  for  some  time  desired,  of  going  to  Eng 
land  in  the  hope  of  doing  something  toward  putting 
an  end  to  these  dreadful  quarrels  and  misunderstand 
ings.  Of  the  retaliatory  measures  he  profoundly  dis 
approved,  and  could  he  but  meet  the  king  face  to  face, 
he  hoped  that  his  plea  for  Massachusetts  might  prove 
not  ineffectual.  When  on  the  morning  of  the  first  of 
June,  1774,  he  left  his  charming  home  in  Milton,  with 
out  the  slightest  premonition  that  he  was  never  to  see 
it  again,  it  was  in  the  spirit  of  a  peacemaker  that  he 
embarked  for  England,  but  there  were  many  who  saw 
in  it  the  flight  of  a  renegade.  It  was  not  in  a  moment, 
.however,  that  this  view  prevailed.  In  spite  of  all  the 
bitter  conflict  and  misunderstanding  that  had  come  to 
pass,  a  character  so  noble  as  Hutchinson's  could  not 
all  at  once  lose  its  hold  upon  honest  men  and  women 
who  had  known  him  for  years  in  the  numberless  little 
details  of  life  that  do  not  make  a  figure  in  political 
history.  The  governor's  heart  was  cheered,  even  if 
his  forebodings  were  not  quieted,  by  formal  addresses 
from  some  of  the  leading  townsmen  of  Milton  and 
Boston,  in  which  his  many  services  to  the  common 
wealth  received  their  full  meed  of  affectionate  acknow 
ledgment.  But  events  were  now  moving  fast,  and 


LAST   ROYAL  GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS    47 

relations  among  men  were  to  be  whirled  hither  and 
thither  as  in  a  cyclone.  Most  of  these  addressers  were 
soon  to  be  judged  as  Tories  and  condemned  to  outer 
darkness.  Those  of  us  who  remember  the  four  years 
following  1860,  remember  how  lax  men's  memories 
are  of  some  things,  how  tenacious  of  others.  So  the 
guns  of  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill  soon  left  little  of 
Hutchinson's  reputation  standing,  save  that  which  the 
last  two  years  had  brought  him.  The  house  at  Milton 
was  used  as  barracks  for  soldiers ;  the  portrait  of  its 
owner,  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society,  was  slashed  and  torn  by  bayonets ; 
all  his  accessible  property  was  confiscated,  and  his 
best  coach  was  sent  over  to  Cambridge  for  the  use  of 
General  Washington.  Even  so  late  as  1774  a  little 
town  in  the  highlands  of  Worcester  County  was  incor 
porated  under  the  name  of  Hutchinson,  but  two  years 
later,  on  its  earnest  petition,  the  legislature  allowed  it 
to  call  itself  after  the  eloquent  Colonel  Barre,  who 
had  in  Parliament  so  warmly  defended  the  Americans. 
Hutchinson  Street  in  Boston,  leading  down  to  the 
wharf  which  had  witnessed  the  smashing  of  the  tea- 
chests,  was  rechristened  as  Pearl  Street.  Even  the 
school  in  Bennet  Street  lost  the  name  of  its  founder, 
and  is  known  to-day  as  the  Eliot  school. 

No  sooner  had  Hutchinson  arrived  at  his  hotel  in 
London,  than  Lord  Dartmouth  came  for  him  and  hur 
ried  him  off  to  an  interview  with  the  king,  without 
waiting  for  him  to  change  his  clothes.  The  conversa 
tion,  as  preserved  in  the  diary,  is  interesting  to  read. 
Neither  king,  minister,  nor  governor  had  the  faintest 
glimmer  of  prevision  as  to  the  course  which  events 
were  about  to  take.  Hutchinson  was  right,  however, 


48  THOMAS   HUTCHINSON 

in  feeling  uneasy  about  the  vindictive  acts  of  April, 
and  expressed,  in  guarded  but  emphatic  terms,  his  dis 
approval  of  them  and  his  wish  that  they  might  be 
repealed;  but  the  king  and  Dartmouth  felt  sure  that 
Gage  would  soon  mend  matters  so  that  there  would 
be  no  need  for  further  harshness,  and  it  was  intended 
that  Hutchinson  should  presently  return  to  Boston 
and  resume  the  office  of  governor.  The  king  did  not 
regard  him  as  superseded  by  Gage,  and  it  is  accord 
ingly  right  to  call  Thomas  Hutchinson  the  last  royal 
governor  of  Massachusetts.  A  few  weeks  later  the 
king  offered  him  a  baronetcy,  which  he  refused.  He 
cared  little  for  such  honours  or  emoluments  as  Eng 
land  could  give  him.  His  heart  was  in  Massachusetts. 
Better  a  farmhouse  there,  he  said,  than  the  finest  palace 
in  the  Old  World.  Life  in  London  was,  nevertheless, 
made  pleasant  for  him  by  the  society  of  the  most  cul 
tivated  and  interesting  people,  and  he  was  everywhere 
treated  with  the  highest  consideration.  He  now  de 
voted  his  working  hours  to  the  third  volume  of  his 
history,  covering  the  period  from  1750  to  1774.  This 
was,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  largely  a  narrative  of 
personal  experience,  and  in  view  of  what  that  experi 
ence  had  been,  its  fairness  and  good  temper  are  simply 
astonishing.  The  volume  remained  in  manuscript  until 
1828,  when  it  was  published  in  London  by  one  of  the 
author's  grandsons.  His  diary  and  letters  covering 
the  period  of  his  life  in  London  have  been  published 
in  two  volumes  by  a  great-grandson,  since  1884,  and 
amply  confirm  the  most  favourable  view  that  can  be 
taken  of  his  character  and  motives.  These  documents 
give  a  most  entertaining  view  of  the  state  of  opinion 
in  London,  as  the  fragmentary  tidings  of  the  war  found 


LAST  ROYAL  GOVERNOR   OF  MASSACHUSETTS     49 

their  way  across  the  ocean,  and  they  throw  much  light 
upon  the  history  of  the  whole  situation.  The  writer's 
intense  love  for  New  England  is  mournfully  conspicu 
ous  from  first  to  last.  Until  Burgoyne's  surrender  he 
cherished  the  hope  of  returning  thither,  but  after  that 
event  he  resigned  himself  to  the  probability  that  he 
must  die  in  exile.  The  deaths  of  two  of  his  five  chil 
dren  took  from  his  fast-diminishing  strength.  On  the 
3d  of  June,  1780,  as  he  was  getting  into  his  carriage 
at  Brompton,  there  came  a  stroke  of  apoplexy,  and  he 
fell  back  into  the  arms  of  his  servant.  His  funeral 
procession  passed  by  the  smouldering  wrecks  of  houses 
just  burned  in  those  hideous  Gordon  riots  that  Dickens 
has  immortalized  in  "  Barnaby  Rudge." 

For  intellectual  gifts  and  accomplishments,  Hutch- 
inson  stands  far  above  all  the  other  colonial  governors 
and  in  the  foremost  rank  among  American  public  men 
of  whatever  age.  For  thorough  grasp  of  finance,  he 
was  the  peer  of  Hamilton  and  Gallatin.  In  1809  John 
Adams,  who  loved  him  not,  said  "  he  understood  the 
subject  of  coin  and  commerce  better  than  any  man  I 
ever  knew  in  this  country."  His  mastery  of  law  was 
equally  remarkable,  and  as  a  historian  his  accuracy  is 
of  the  highest  order.  His  personal  magnetism  was  so 
great  that  in  spite  of  all  vicissitudes  of  popular  feeling, 
so  long  as  he  remained  upon  the  scene,  and  until  after 
his  departure  for  England  had  been  followed  by  the 
outbreak  of  war,  he  did  not  fully  lose  his  hold  upon  the 
people.  He  was  nothing  if  not  public-spirited,  and  his 
kindness  toward  persons  in  distress  and  sorrow  knew 
no  bounds.  Yet  in  intellectual  sympathy  with  plain 
common  people  he  seems  to  have  been  deficient.  He 
was  too  thoroughly  an  aristocrat  to  enter  into  their 


50  THOMAS  HUTCHINSON 

ways  of  thinking;  and  herein  was  one  source  of  his 
weakness  as  a  statesman.  But  the  chief  source  of  that 
weakness,  as  is  so  often  the  case,  was  closely  related  to 
one  of  his  most  remarkable  features  of  strength.  That 
inborn  legal  quality  of  his  mind  which,  without  the 
customary  technical  training,  made  him  a  jurist  capa 
ble  of  winning  the  admiration  of  Lord  Mansfield,  was 
too  strongly  developed.  Allied  with  his  rigid  Puritan 
conscience,  it  outweighed  other  good  qualities  and 
warped  his  nature.  He  was  enveloped  in  a  crust  of 
intense  legality,  through  which  he  could  not  break. 
If  he  had  lived  a  century  later,  he  might  have  written 
the  memorable  pamphlet  in  which  another  great  Mas 
sachusetts  jurist,  Benjamin  Curtis,  argued  that  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  had  no  constitutional  authority  for 
emancipating  the  slaves.  It  is  always  well  that  such 
strides  in  advance  should  be  made  under  careful  pro 
test,  for  only  thus  is  society  kept  secure  against  crude 
experiments.  But  the  men  best  fitted  to  utter  the  pro 
test  are  not  likely  to  be  competent  leaders  in  revolu 
tionary  times,  when  it  becomes  necessary  to  view  many 
facts  in  a  new  light.  For  this  is  required  the  rare  tact 
of  a  Samuel  Adams  or  a  Lincoln.  It  was  Hutchin- 
son's  misfortune  that,  with  such  a  rigidly  legal  tem 
perament,  he  should  have  been  called  to  fill  a  supreme 
executive  office  at  the  moment  of  a  great  revolutionary 
crisis.  Nothing  but  failure  and  obloquy  could  come 
from  such  a  situation.  Yet  the  pages  of  history  are 
strewn  with  examples  of  brave  men  slain  in  defence  of 
unworthy  causes,  and  because  they  have  been  true  to 
their  convictions  we  honour  and  respect  them.  Never 
did  Hutchinson  flinch  a  hair's-breadth  for  the  sake  of 
personal  advancement.  Would  that  there  were  more 


LAST  ROYAL   GOVERNOR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS     51 

of  this  disinterested  courage  among  our  public  men 
to-day !  When  we  listen  to  the  cowardly  talk  of  can 
didates  who  use  language  to  conceal  thought,  and 
dare  not  speak  out  like  men  for  fear  of  losing  votes, 
it  occurs  to  us  sometimes  that  in  the  life  of  nations 
there  is  no  danger  so  great  as  the  loss  of  true  manli 
ness  ;  and  we  cannot  but  feel  that  from  the  stormy 
career  of  this  old  Tory  governor — maligned,  misun 
derstood,  and  exiled,  but  never  once  robbed  of  self- 
respect —  there  is  still  a  lesson  to  be  learned. 


II 

CHARLES    LEE 
THE   SOLDIER  OF   FORTUNE 


II 

CHARLES    LEE 

THE   SOLDIER  OF  FORTUNE 

WHENEVER  a  great  war  is  going  on,  it  is  apt  to  draw 
from  other  countries  a  crowd  of  officers  who  come  to 
look  on  and  give  advice,  or  perhaps  to  study  the  art  of 
war  under  new  conditions,  or  to  carve  out  for  them 
selves  a  career  for  which  no  chance  seems  to  be 
offered  them  at  home.  This  was  amply  illustrated  in 
the  American  War  of  Independence.  The  war  was 
watched  with  interest  in  Europe,  not  from  any  specia) 
regard  for  the  Americans,  —  about  whom  people  in 
general  knew  rather  less  than  they  knew  about  the 
inhabitants  of  Dahomey  or  of  Kamtchatka,  —  but  from 
a  belief  that  the  result  would  seriously  affect  the  posi 
tion  of  Great  Britain  as  a  European  power.  A  swarm 
of  officers  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  the  hope  of  obtaining 
commands,  and  not  less  than  twenty-seven  such  for 
eigners  served  in  the  Continental  army,  with  the  rank 
of  general,  either  major  or  brigadier.  I  do  not  refer 
to  such  French  allies  as  came  with  Rochambeau,  or  in 
company  with  the  fleets  of  D'Estaing  and  De  Grasse. 
I  refer  only  to  such  men  as  obtained  commissions 
from  Congress  and  were  classed  for  the  time  as  Ameri 
can  officers.  For  the  most  part  these  men  came  in 
the  earlier  stages  of  the  war,  before  the  French  alliance 
had  borne  fruit.  Some  were  drawn  hither  by  a  noble, 
disinterested  enthusiasm  for  the  cause  of  political  lib- 

55 


56  CHARLES   LEE 

erty;  some  were  mere  selfish  schemers,  or  crack- 
brained  vagrants  in  quest  of  adventure.  Among  the 
latter  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  was  Thomas  Con- 
way.  Among  the  former  there  were  five  who  attained 
real  eminence,  and  have  left  a  shining  mark  upon  the 
pages  of  history.  These  were  De  Kalb  and  Pulaski, 
who  gave  up  their  lives  on  the  battle-field ;  Lafayette 
and  Kosciuszko,  who  afterwards  returned  to  their  own 
countries  to  play  honourable  but  unsuccessful  parts ; 
and',  last  not  least,  the  noble  Steuben,  who  died  an 
American  citizen  in  the  second  term  of  Washington's 
presidency. 

But  in  the  eyes  of  the  generation  which  witnessed 
the  beginning  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  none  of  the 
European  officers  just  mentioned  was  anything  like 
so  conspicuous  or  so  interesting  a  figure  as  the  man  to 
whose  career  I  invite  your  attention  this  evening; 
Charles  Lee  was  on  the  ground  here  before  any  of 
these  others ;  he  had  already  been  in  America ;  he 
came  with  the  greatest  possible  amount  of  noise ;  he 
laid  claim  to  the  character  of  a  disinterested  enthusiast 
so  vehemently  that  people  believed  him.  .  For  a  while 
he  seemed  completely  identified  with  the  American 
cause ;  and  as  his  name  happens  to  be  the  same  as 
that  of  an  illustrious  Virginian  family,  posterity  seems 
to  have  been  in  some  danger  of  forgetting  that  he  was 
not  himself  an  American.  I  don't  know  how  many 
times  I  have  been  asked  to  state  his  relationship  to  the 
Lees  of  Virginia;  and,  what  is  worse,  I  found  in  print 
some  time  ago,  in  a  history  of  the  town  of  Greenwich, 
R.I.,  the  statement  that  the  traitor  of  Monmouth  was 
father  of  the  great  general,  Robert  Edward  Lee,  who 
might  -thus  be  supposed  to  have  inherited  what  the 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  57 

writer  is  pleased  to  consider  his  natural  propensity 
toward  treason ! 1  Such  absurdities  show  that  even 
the  industrious  writers  of  town  histories  do  not  always 
consult  biographical  dictionaries  and  other  easily 
accessible  sources  of  information,  but  it  is  a  pity  that 
they  should  find  their  way  into  print.  Whether  the 
Cheshire  family  to  which  Charles  Lee  belonged  was 
in  any  remote  way  connected  with  the  Lees  of  Vir 
ginia  is  uncertain.  Of  Charles  Lee's  immediate 
ancestry  little  is  known  except  that  he  was  the  young 
est  son  of  John  Lee,  of  Dernhall  in  Cheshire,  and 
Isabella,  daughter  of  Sir  Henry  Bunbury,  of  Stanney 
in  the  same  county.  John  Lee  was  for  some  time 
captain  of  dragoons,  and  at  length,  after  1742,  colonel 
of  the  44th  regiment  of  infantry.  Charles  Lee  was 
born  at  Dernhall  in  1731,  and  is  said  to  have  received 
a  commission  in  the  army  at  the  age  of  eleven.  This 
seems  at  first  a  ridiculous  story ;  but  that  was  an  age 
of  abuses,  and  a  study  of  the  British  army  list  in  the 
good  old  days  of  the  two  first  Georges  brings  to  light 
some  astonishing  facts.  Ensigns  and  cornets  were 
duly  enrolled,  and  drew  their  quarterly  stipends,  before 
leaving  the  nursery ;  and  the  Duchess  of  Marlborough, 
in  one  of  her  letters,  has  something  still  better  to  tell. 
Colonel  Lepel  made  his  own  daughter  a  cornet  in  his 
regiment  as  soon  as  she  was  born ;  and  why  not  ?  asks 
the  duchess;  at  that  time  of  life  a  girl  was  quite  as 
useful  to  the  army  as  a  boy.  This  girl  was  afterward 
Lady  Hervey,  and  she  went  on  drawing  her  salary  as 

1 "  Charles  Lee  died  a  miserable,  neglected,  and  disappointed  man.  It 
would  seem  that  treason  is  hereditary,  as  his  son,  the  late  General  Lee, 
commander-in-chief  of  the  Southern  Rebellion  (sic),  followed  in  the  foot 
steps  of  his  father."  —  D.  H.  Greene's  "History  of  East  Greenwich,  R.I.," 
p.  259. 


58  CHARLES   LEE 

cornet  for  some  years  after  she  had  become  maid  of 
honour  to  the  queen.  By  and  by  it  occurred  to  Lord 
Sunderland  that  this  was  a  little  too  absurd;  and  so 
he  induced  her  to  resign  her  commission  in  exchange 
for  a  pension  from  George  I.1  This  memorable  inci 
dent  seems  to  have  escaped  the  notice  of  our  modern 
framers  of  pension  bills. 

As  the  date  at  which  Charles  Lee  reached  the  age 
of  eleven  was  precisely  that  at  which  his  father  reached 
the  rank  of  colonel,  it  is  not  improbable  that  he  may 
have  received  a  commission  of  the  sort  just  described. 
However  this  may  have  been,  he  is  known  to  have 
studied  at  the  free  grammar-school  of  Bury  St.  Ed 
munds,  in  Suffolk,  and  afterward  at  an  academy  in 
Switzerland.  He  acquired  some  familiarity  with 
Greek  and  Latin,  and  a  thorough  practical  knowledge 
of .  French.  In  later  years,  in  the  course  of  his 
rambles  about  Europe,  he  became  more  or  less  pro 
ficient  in  Spanish,  Italian,  and  German.  From  an 
early  age  he  seems  to  have  applied  himself  diligently 
to  the  study  of  the  military  art.  In  May,  1751,  shortly 
after  his  father's  death,  he  received  a  lieutenant's  com 
mission  in  that  44th  regiment,  of  which  his  father 
had  been  colonel.  The  regiment  was  ordered  to 
America  in  1754,  and  under  its  lieutenant-colonel, 
Thomas  Gage,  formed  the  advance  of  Braddock's 
army,  and  received  the  first  attack  of  the  French  and 
Indians  in  the  terrible  battle  of  the  Monongahela.  It 
was  in  this  disastrous  campaign  that  Lee  must  have 
become  acquainted  with  Horatio  Gates  and  perhaps 
with  George  Washington.  The  remains  of  the  shat 
tered  army  were  in  the  autumn  taken  northward  to 

1  G.  H.  Moore,  "  Treason  of  Charles  Lee,"  p.  5. 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  59 

Albany  and  Schenectady,  where  they  went  into  win 
ter  quarters.  Lee  was  present  at  several  conferences 
between  Sir  William  Johnson  and  the  chiefs  of  the 
Six  Nations,  and  became  much  interested  in  the 
Indians.  His  relations  with  them  soon  became  so 
friendly  that  he  was  adopted  into  the  Mohawk  tribe  of 
the  Bear,  and  thus  acquired  the  privilege  of  smoking 
a  pipe  with  them  as  they  sat  around  the  council  fire. 
He  also  formed  a  temporary  matrimonial  alliance  with 
one  of  the  foremost  families  of  the  Six  Nations,  and 
wrote  about  it  to  his  sister  in  England,  with  quaint 
frankness.  "  My  wife,"  said  he,  "  is  daughter  to  the 
famous  White  Thunder  who  is  Belt  of  Wampum  to 
the  Senakas  —  which  is  in  fact  their  Lord  Treasurer. 
She  is  a  very  great  beauty,  and  is  more  like  your 
friend  Mrs.  Griffith  than  anybody  I  know.  I  shall 
say  nothing  of  her  accomplishments,  for  you  must  be 
certain  that  a  woman  of  her  fashion  cannot  be  without 
many."  The  Indians,  he  continues,  are  even  more 
polite  than  the  French,  "  if  you  will  allow  good  breed 
ing  to  consist  in  a  constant  desire  to  do  everything  that 
will  please  you,  and  a  strict  carefulness  not  to  say  or 
do  anything  that  may  offend  you."  Of  this  well-bred 
desire  to  please,  the  same  letter  gives  an  instance.1 
A  young  Mohawk,  anxious  to  show  his  gratitude  for 
some  trifling  service  Lee  had  rendered  him,  prowled 
about  the  neighbouring  woods  until  he  succeeded  in 
killing  a  French  sergeant  on  picket  duty;  then  he 
carefully  decorated  the  scalp  with  bright  blue  ribbons 
and  presented  it  to  Lee  in  token  of  brotherly  love. 
Lee's  definition  of  good  breeding  is  excellent ;  but  his 
practice  did  not  comport  with  his  theory.  He  was 

1  New  York  Historical  Society  Collections,  Lee  Papers,  I.  5. 


60  CHARLES   LEE 

already  noted  among  his  fellow-soldiers  for  an  arro 
gant  and  quarrelsome  temper,  and  the  significant 
name  bestowed  upon  him  by  his  Mohawk  friends  was 
"  Boiling  Water."  He  seemed  to  court  opportunities 
for  saying  and  doing  offensive  things.  His  tongue 
bit  shrewdly ;  it  was  a  nipping  and  an  eager  tongue. 
He  was  fond  of  commenting  upon  the  imbecility  of  his 
superior  officers,  and  the  conduct  of  the  war  afforded 
plenty  of  occasions  for  this  display  of  humour. 
About  this  time  —  in  accordance  with  a  practice 
which  survived  in  the  British  army  until  Mr.  Glad 
stone  put  an  end  to  it  —  he  purchased,  for  ^"900,  a 
captain's  commission  in  the  44th.  The  commission 
was  dated  June  n,  1756.  The  regiment  did  little 
that  year  except  take  part  in  a  futile  attempt  to  raise 
the  siege  of  Oswego,  which  surrendered  to  the  French 
on  the  1 4th  of  August.  After  another  idle  winter  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Albany,  the  troops  were  con 
veyed  by  sea  to  Halifax,  from  which  point  the  Earl  of 
Loudon  intended  to  pounce  upon  the  great  stronghold 
of  Louisburg.  A  powerful  force  was  collected,  and 
some  acres  were  prudently  planted  with  succulent 
vegetables  as  a  safeguard  against  scurvy;  but  nothing 
more  was  accomplished,  for  the  commander-in-chief, 
according  to  Franklin,  resembled  King  George  on  the 
tavern  sign-boards,  always  on  horseback  but  never 
getting  ahead.  When  Captain  Lee  openly  derided 
the  campaign  as  a  "  cabbage-planting  enterprise,"  the 
remark  drew  public  attention  to  the  young  man,  and 
no  doubt  there  were  quarters  where  it  sank  deep  and 
was  remembered  against  him. 

Early  in  the  next  summer,  1758,  we  find  the  44th 
regiment  marching  up  the  valley  of   the  Hudson,  as 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  6 1 

part  of  the  fine  army  with  which  General  Abercrombie 
was  expected  to  take  Ticonderoga.  At  the  Flats  near 
Albany,  Lee's  company  encamped  on  the  farm  of  Mrs. 
Schuyler,  aunt  of  the  distinguished  general  of  that 
name,  a  noble  and  benevolent  woman,  of  whom  Mrs. 
Grant  of  Laggan  has  left  such  a  charming  description, 
in  her  "  Memoirs  of  an  American  Lady."  Mrs.  Schuy- 
ler's  generosity  toward  soldiers  was  well  known  ;  but 
Lee,  who  had  forgotten  to  provide  himself  with  the 
proper  certificates  for  obtaining  supplies,  and  was 
seizing  horses  and  oxen,  blankets  and  eatables,  to 
right  and  left,  with  as  little  ceremony  as  if  in  an 
enemy's  country,  did  not  spare  this  lady's  well-stocked 
farm ;  and  when  she  ventured  a  few  mild  words  of 
expostulation,  he  replied  with  such  a  torrent  of  foul 
epithet  that  she  had  much  ado  to  restrain  her  ser 
vants  from  assaulting  him.  A  few  days  later  came 
the  murderous  battle  before  Ticonderoga,  where  Brit 
ish  and  Americans  were  so  terribly  defeated  by  Mont- 
calm.  There  Thomas  Gage  fought  side  by  side  with 
Israel  Putnam  and  John  Stark,  little  dreaming  of 
another  bright  summer  day  near  Boston,  seventeen 
years  to  come ;  there  was  slain  Lord  Howe,  eldest  of 
the  three  famous  brothers ;  and  there  in  a  gallant 
charge  our  cynical  young  captain  was  shot  through 
the  body  and  carried  off  from  the  field.  Bruised  and 
battered,  and  with  two  ribs  broken,  he  doubtless  had 
breath  enough  left  to  growl  and  snarl  over  the  incom- 
petency  of  the  general  whom,  in  the  next  letter  to  his 
sister,  he  calls  "  beastly  poltroon "  and  "  booby-in- 
chief."  On  hearing  the  news,  Mrs.  Schuyler  had  her 
largest  barn  prepared  for  a  hospital.  Thither,  with 
many  others,  Captain  Lee  was  taken  and  treated  so 


62  CHARLES   LEE 

kindly  that  his  rough  heart  was  softened.  He  averred, 
with  terrific  oaths,  that  "  a  place  would  surely  be  re 
served  for  Madame  in  heaven,  though  no  other  woman 
should  be  there,  and  that  he  should  wish  for  nothing 
better  than  to  share  her  final  destiny."  l 

By  December  the  wound  had  healed,  and  we  find 
him  in  winter  quarters  on  Long  Island,  thrashing  the 
surgeon  of  his  regiment  for  a  scandalous  lampoon. 
And  here  we  are  introduced  to  the  first  of  a  series  of 
little  "  special  providences "  keeping  this  personage 
alive  for  the  singular  part  which  he  was  to  play  in 
American  history.  The  cowardly  doctor  nursed  his 
wrath,  lurked  among  the  bushes  by  a  lonely  roadside, 
seized  the  captain's  bridle,  and  fired  at  his  heart ;  but 
the  horse  opportunely  shied  and  the  bullet  tore  Lee's 
clothing  and  skin  just  under  the  left  arm.  The  sur 
geon  was  cocking  a  second  pistol  when  another 
officer  came  up  and  struck  it  from  his  hand.  Then 
the  surgeon  was  collared  and  dragged  off  to  camp, 
where  a  court-martial  presently  turned  him  adrift 
upon  the  world. 

The  next  summer  Lee  was  present  at  the  capture 
of  Fort  Niagara,  and  was  sent  with  a  small  party  to 
follow  the  route  of  the  few  French  who  escaped. 
This  was  the  first  party  of  English  troops  that  ever 
crossed  Lake  Erie.  Their  march  led  them  to  Fort 
Duquesne  (now  Pittsburg),  which  General  Forbes  had 
captured  the  year  before.  Thence  a  march  of  seven 
hundred  miles-  brought  them  to  Crown  Point  to  meet 
General  Amherst.  There  was  yet  another  long  march 
to  Oswego  and  back  before  Lee  settled  down  for  the 
winter  in  Philadelphia,  and  was  employed  in  beating 

1  Lossing's  "Schuyler,"  I.  154. 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  63 

up  recruits.  In  the  final  campaign  of  1760  his  regi 
ment  was  part  of  the  force  led  by  Amherst  from  Lake 
Ontario  down  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Montreal;  and 
after  the  capture  of  that  town  had  completed  the  con 
quest  of  Canada,  he  returned  to  England.  His  uncle, 
Sir  William  Bunbury,  writing  from  London,  had 
alluded  to  chances  of  promotion,  and  incidentally 
observed  that  many  fashionable  matches  were  re 
ported,  and  he  had  better  come  home  before  all  the 
fine  young  ladies  were  disposed  of.  Perhaps  Sir 
William  had  not  heard  of  the  accomplished  daughter 
of  the  "  Lord  Treasurer  "  White  Thunder.  The  pro 
motion  came  in  August,  1761,  when  Lee  was  appointed 
Major  in  the  iO3d  regiment,  known  as  the  Volunteer 
Hunters.  War  was  then  breaking  out  between  Spain 
and  Portugal,  and  in  1762  a  small  British  army  was 
sent  to  aid  the  Portuguese.  The  chief  command  of 
the  allied  forced  was  given  to  one  of  the  ablest  gen 
erals  of  his  time,  the  famous  Count  von  Lippe-Schaum- 
burg,  a  grandson  of  King  George  I.,  and  own  cousin 
to  the  brothers  Howe.  Lee  accompanied  the  expedi 
tion  with  a  brevet  of  lieutenant-colonel  from  the  king 
of  Portugal,  and  his  brigadier-commander  was  General 
Burgoyne.  The  campaign  was  a  brilliant  success,  and 
Lee  received  honourable  mention  for  the  masterly  way 
in  which  he  surprised  and  carried  by  storm  the  Span 
ish  position  at  Villa  Velha  on  the  Tagus.  On  his 
return  to  England  he  busied  himself  with  schemes  of 
colonization  in  America,  in  which  he  aspired  to  emu 
late  the  fame  of  Penn  and  Oglethorpe.  A  colony  was 
to  be  founded  on  the  Ohio  River  below  the  Wabash, 
and  another  on  the  Illinois.  Inducements  were  to  be 
held  out  for  Protestant  emigrants  from  Switzerland 


64  CHARLES   LEE 

and  Germany,  as  well  as  from  England;  but  the 
enterprise  found  few  supporters.  About  this  time,  in 
1763,  the  iO3d  regiment  was  disbanded,  and  Lee 
passed  virtually  into  retirement  as  a  major  on  half-pay. 
At  this  he  was  disappointed  and  enraged,  for  a  good 
word  from  the  Count  von  Lippe-Schaumburg  had 
given  him  some  reason  to  expect  promotion.  But  the 
ministry  disliked  him,  partly  on  account  of  his  liberal 
opinions  and  the  vehemence  with  which  he  declared 
them,  partly  because  of  the  fierceness  with  which  he  vili 
fied  and  lampooned  anybody  of  whom  he  disapproved. 
Though  his  later  career  showed  that  he  had  not  the 
courage  of  his  convictions,  yet  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  he  really  entertained  very  decided  opinions.  He 
was  a  radical  free-thinker  of  the  unripe,  acrid  sort,  like 
his  contemporaries,  John  Wilkes  and  Thomas  Paine. 
He  wrote  and  talked  quite  sensibly  about  many 
things ;  his  sympathetic  appreciation  of  Beccaria's 
great  treatise  on  "  Crime  and  Punishment "  was  much 
to  his  credit ;  as  a  schoolboy  in  Switzerland  he  had 
learned  republican  theories  under  good  teachers ;  and 
there  is  no  reason  for  doubting  his  sincerity  in  hating 
and  despising  the  despotism  which  then  prevailed 
almost  everywhere  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 
Sometimes  he  dealt  humorously  with  such  topics ;  as 
in  his  epistle  to  David  Hume.  In  reading  books  on 
history,  he  said,  nothing  had  so  frequently  shocked 
him  as  the  disrespectful  and  irreverent  manner  in 
which  divers  writers  have  spoken  of  crowned  heads. 
"  Many  princes,  it  must  be  owned,  have  acted  in  some 
instances  not  altogether  as  we  could  wish,"  but  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  historian  to  draw  a  veil  over  their 
weakness.  He  was  glad  to  see  that  Mr.  Hume  had 


THE   SOLDIER    OF   FORTUNE  65 

acted  upon  this  sound  precept  in  depicting  the  exalted 
virtues  of  the  Stuarts.  He  had  heard  that  this  history 
of  England  was  the  only  one  his  sacred  Majesty 
George  III.  could  be  induced  to  read,  and  he  didn't 
wonder  at  it.  He  had  often  thought  of  writing  his 
tory  himself,  and  now  that  he  had  got  his  cue  from 
Mr.  Hume,  he  should  go  on  and  devote  his  energies 
to  the  much-needed  task  of  rescuing  from  unmerited 
odium  those  grossly  slandered  saints,  the  emperor 
Claudius  and  his  successor  Nero. 

But  it  was  seldom  that  Lee's  sarcasm  was  so  gentle 
as  this.  Usually  he  lost  his  temper  and  hurled  about 
such  epithets  as  scoundrels,  idiots,  numskulls,  diaboli 
cal  tyrants,  damned  conspirators,  sceptred  robbers, 
impious  cutthroats.  Was  it  a  public  man  of  whom 
he  disapproved,  he  would  say  "  everything  he  touches 
becomes  putrid ; "  was  it  some  opinion  from  which 
he  dissented,  he  would  say  "  it  was  the  most  cun 
ning  fiend  in  hell  who  first  broached  this  doctrine." l 
Speech  less  peppery  than  this  seemed  tasteless  to 
Charles  Lee.  The  accumulation  of  oaths  and  super 
latives  often  makes  the  reading  of  his  letters  and 
pamphlets  rather  dreary  work.  When  they  were  first 
published,  or  quoted  in  conversation,  they  served  to 
offend  powerful  people  and  ruin  the  writer's  hopes  of 
advancement.  Had  he  been  a  man  of  real  ability,  or 
had  he  been  favoured  by  some  queer  freak  of  fortune 
that  would  have  made  him,  like  Wilkes,  a  bone  of 
contention,  he  might  have  risen  to  eminence  in  the 
opposition  party.  But  his  talents  were  too  slender  for 
this;  something  more  than  growling  and  swearing 
was  needed.  Accordingly  he  soon  made  up  his  mind 

1  New  York  Historical  Society  Collections,  Lee  Papers,  I.  74. 


66  CHARLES   LEE 

that  he  was  not  properly  appreciated  in  England,  and 
early  in  1 765  he  made  his  way  to  that  home  of  turbu 
lent  spirits,  Poland,  where  he  received  an  appointment 
on  the  staff  of  the  new  king,  Stanislaus  Augustus. 
Next  year,  in  accompanying  the  Polish  embassy  to 
Turkey,  he  narrowly  escaped  freezing  to  death  on  the 
Balkan  Mountains,  and  again,  while  in  Constantinople, 
came  near  being  buried  in  the  ruins  of  his  house, 
which  wras  destroyed  by  an  earthquake.  In  1766  he 
returned  to  England  and  spent  two  years  in  a  fruitless 
attempt  to  obtain  promotion.  Having  at  length  quite 
established  his  reputation  as  a  disappointed  and  vin 
dictive  place-hunter,  he  tried  Poland  again.  In  1769 
he  was  commissioned  major-general  in  the  Polish 
army,  but  did  not  relinquish  his  half-pay  as  a  British 
major,  because  it  was  "  too  considerable  a  sum  to 
throw  away  wantonly."1  Early  in  the  winter  he 
served  in  a  campaign  against  the  Turks,  and  was 
present  in  a  battle  at  Chotzim  on  the  Moldavian 
frontier.  Here,  as  usual,  he  declared  that  the  com 
manders  under  whom  he  served  were  fools.2  His 
brief  service  was  ended  by  -a  fever  from  which  he 
barely  escaped  with  his  life.  The  rest  of  the  winter 
was  spent  in  Vienna,  and  in  the  spring  of  1770  he  pro 
ceeded  to  Italy,  where  he  lost  two  fingers  in  an  affair 
of  honour  in  which  an  Italian  officer  crossed  swords 
with  him.  His  earliest  biographer,  Edward  Lang- 
worthy,  observes  that  "his  warmth  of  temper  drew 
him  into  many  rencounters  of  this  kind ;  in  all  which 
he  acquitted  himself  with  singular  courage,  sprightli- 
ness  of  imagination,  and  great  presence  of  mind."G 

1  Moore,  p.  1 5.  2  Lee  Papers,  I.  89. 

8Langworthy,  "Memoirs  of  Charles  Lee,11  London,  1792,  p.  8. 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  67 

What  in  the  world  sprightliness  of  imagination  in 
duelling  may  be,  we  are  left  to  conjecture.  Perhaps 
in  this  case  it  may  have  been  exemplified  in  the  imme 
diate  recourse  to  pistols,  the  result  of  which  was  that 
the  Italian  was  slain,  and  Lee  was  obliged  to  flee  to 
Gibraltar,  where  he  embarked  for  London.  In  May, 
1772,  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  lieutenant- 
colonel  on  half-pay,  but  was  unable  to  obtain  any 
further  recognition  from  government. 

Ever  since  the  Stamp  Act  our  knight-errant  had 
kept  an  eye  upon  the  troubles  in  America,  and  his 
letters  show  that  by  soldiers  and  princes  at  least,  even 
as  far  as  Poland,  the  quarrel  between  Great  Britain 
and  her  colonies  was  watched  with  interest.  It  now 
seems  to  have  occurred  to  him  that  America  might 
afford  a  promising  career  for  a  soldier  of  fortune.  He 
arrived  in  New  York  on  the  loth  of  November,  1773, 
in  the  midst  of  the  agitation  over  the  tea  ships,  and 
the  next  ten  months  were  spent  in  a  journey  through 
the  colonies  as  far  as  Virginia  in  one  direction  and 
Massachusetts  in  the  other.  In  the  course  of  this 
journey  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  nearly  all  the 
leaders  of  the  Revolutionary  party,  and  won  high  favour 
from  the  zeal  with  which  he  espoused  their  cause.  He 
visited  Mount  Vernon  and  was  warmly  greeted  by 
Washington.  Whether  Washington  remembered  him 
or  not,  as  a  lieutenant  in  1755,  is  not  at  all  clear.  But 
now  the  great  European  soldier,  who  had  fought  on 
the  banks  of  the  Tagus  and  of  the  Dniester,  and  was 
a  member  of  the  liberal  party  in  England  withal,  was 
sure  to  interest  the  noble,  genial,  and  modest  man  who 
commanded  the  militia  of  Virginia.  Whether  he 
could  have  found  favour  with  Mrs.  Washington  is 


68  CHARLES   LEE 

much  more  doubtful.  With  ladies  Lee  was  never  a 
favourite.  Mercy  Warren,  the  sister  of  James  Otis, 
and  one  of  the  brightest  and  most  highly  cultivated 
women  of  her  time,  saw  Lee  under  all  the  glamour  of 
his  newly  assumed  greatness,  yet,  while  she  admitted 
that  he  was  "judicious"  and  "learned"  (these  were 
her  words),  she  could  not  but  remark  upon  his  extreme 
coarseness  and  his  slovenly  habits.  Indeed,  when  we 
observe  the  frightful  latitude  of  speech  in  some  of  his 
letters,  we  feel  that  he  would  have  been  an  uncom 
fortable  guest  to  invite  to  dinner.  He  was  tall  and 
extremely  slender,  almost  without  shoulders,  the  fore 
head  rather  high  but  very  narrow,  the  nose  aquiline 
and  enormous,  the  complexion  sallow,  the  eyes  small 
and  deep-set,  inquisitive  and  restless,  the  upper  lip 
curled  in  chronic  disdain  of  everything  and  every 
body,  the  chin  contracted  and  feeble ;  such  was  Charles 
Lee  at  the  age  of  two  and  forty,  when  he  revisited 
America,  a  weak,  dyspeptic,  querulous  man.  His  linen, 
like  Daniel  Quilp's,  was  of  a  peculiar  hue,  for  such  was 
his  taste  and  fancy;  his  clothes  had  the  air  of  hav 
ing  been  only  half  put  on ;  and  he  was  seldom  seen  in 
private  or  in  public  without  five  or  six  dogs  at  his 
heels.  Once  he  is  said  to  have  invited  a  friend  to 
dinner,  and  when  the  meal  was  served  the  only  other 
guests  were  found  to  be  half  a  score  of  dogs,  both 
great  and  small,  which  squatted  on  chairs  and  lapped 
up  their  food  from  plates  set  before  them  on  the 
table.  "  I  must  have  some  object  to  embrace,"  said 
he ;  "  when  I  can  be  convinced  that  men  are  as  worthy 
objects  as  dogs,  I  shall  transfer  my  benevolence,  and 
become  as  stanch  a  philanthropist  as  the  canting 
Addisori  affected  to  be." 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  69 

All  these  uncouth  looks  and  ways  were  at  first  inter 
preted  by  the  people  as  eccentricities  of  genius.  To 
some  persons,  doubtless,  they  seemed  to  add  a  touch 
of  romantic  interest  to  a  man  whom  every  one  looked 
upon  as  a  public  benefactor.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
at  this  time  he  did  render  some  real  services  with 
tongue  and  pen,  while  his  self-seeking  motives  were 
hidden  by  the  earnestness  of  his  arguments  in  behalf 
of  political  liberty  and  the  unquestionable  sincerity  of 
his  invectives  against  the  British  government.  The 
best  of  his  writings  at  this  time  was  the  "  Strictures  on 
a  Friendly  Address  to  all  Reasonable  Americans,  in 
Reply  to  Dr.  Myles  Cooper,"  in  which  the  arguments 
of  the  Tory  president  of  King's  College  were  severely 
handled.  This  pamphlet,  published  in  1774,  was  many 
times  reprinted,  and  exerted  considerable  influence. 
While  the  first  Continental  Congress  was  in  session  at 
Philadelphia,  Lee  was  present  in  that  city  and  was 
ready  wich  his  advice  and  opinions.  He  set  himself 
up  for  an  expert  in  military  matters,  and  there  was  not 
a  campaign  in  ancient  or  modern  history  which  he 
could  not  expound  and  criticise  with  the  air  of  a  man 
who  had  exhausted  the  subject.  The  American  leaders, 
ill  acquainted  with  military  science,  and  flattered  by 
the  prospect  of  securing  the  aid  of  a  great  European 
soldier,  were  naturally  ready  to  take  him  at  his  own 
valuation ;  but  he  felt  that  one  grave  obstacle  stood  in 
the  way  of  his  appointment  to  the  chief  command.  In 
a  letter  to  Edmund  Burke,  dated  the  i6th  of  December, 
1774,  he  observed  that  he  did  not  think  the  Americans 
"would  or  ought  to  confide  in  a  man,  let  his  qualifi 
cations  be  ever  so  great,  who  has  no  property  among 
them."  To  remove  this  objection  he  purchased,  for 


70  CHARLES   LEE 

about  ^5000  in  Virginia  currency  (equal  to  about 
^3000  sterling),  an  estate  in  Berkeley  County,  in  the 
Shenandoah  valley,  near  that  of  his  friend  Horatio 
Gates.  He  did  not  complete  this  purchase  till  the 
last  of  May,  1775,  while  the  second  Continental  Con 
gress  was  in  session.  A  letter  to  Gates  at  this  time 
seems  to  indicate  that  he  was  awaiting  the  action  of 
the  Congress,  and  did  not  finally  commit  himself  to 
the  purchase  until  virtually  sure  of  a  high  military 
command.  To  pay  for  the  estate  he  borrowed  ,£3000 
of  Robert  Morris,  to  whom  he  mortgaged  the  property 
as  security,  while  he  drew  bills  on  his  attorney  in 
England  for  the  amount.  On  the  i7th  of  June  he 
received  as  high  a  command  as  Congress  thought  it 
prudent  to  give  him,  that  of  second  major-general  in 
the  Continental  army.  The  reasons  for  making  Wash 
ington  commander-in-chief  were  generally  convincing. 
It  was  as  yet  only  the  four  New  England  states  that 
had  actually  taken  up  arms,  and  in  order  to  swell  the 
rebellion  to  continental  dimensions  it  was  indispensa 
ble  that  Virginia  should  commit  herself  irrevocably  in 
the  struggle.  For  this  reason  John  Adams  was  fore 
most  in  urging  the  appointment  of  Washington  as 
commander-in-chief.  But  as  the  only  Continental  army 
at  that  moment  existing  was  the  force  of  sixteen  thou 
sand  New  England  men  with  which  General  Artemas 
Ward  was  besieging  Boston,  it  was  not  deemed  polite 
to  place  a  second  in  command  over  Ward.  Some  of 
Lee's  friends,  and  in  particular  Thomas  MifHin,  after 
ward  active  in  the  Conway  cabal,  urged  that  he  should 
at  least  have  the  first  place  after  Washington;  but  John 
Adams  declared  that,  while  the  New  England  army 
would  cheerfully  serve  under  Washington,  it  could  not 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  ^\ 

be  expected  to  acquiesce  in  having  another  than  its 
own  general  in  the  next  place.  Accordingly  Ward  was 
appointed  first  of  the  major-generals  and  Lee  second. 
The  British  adventurer,  who  had  cherished  hopes  of 
receiving  the  chief  command,  was  keenly  disappointed. 
For  the  present  he  repressed  his  spleen  against  Wash 
ington,  but  made  no  secret  of  his  contempt  for  Ward, 
whom  he  described  as  "  a  fat  old  gentleman  who  had 
been  a  popular  churchwarden,  but  had  no  acquaintance 
whatever  with  military  affairs."  When  Lee  was  in 
formed  of  his  appointment,  he  begged  leave,  before 
accepting  it,  to  confer  with  a  committee  of  Congress 
with  regard  to  his  private  affairs.  The  committee  be 
ing  immediately  appointed,  he  made  it  a  condition  of 
his  entering  the  American  service  that  he  should  be 
indemnified  by  Congress  for  any  pecuniary  loss  he 
might  surfer  by  so  doing,  and  that  this  reimbursement 
should  be  made  as  soon  as  the  amount  of  such  loss 
should  be  ascertained.  Congress  at  once  assented  to 
this  condition,  and  Lee  accepted  his  appointment.  Up 
to  this  moment  he  had  retained  his  commission  as 
lieutenant-colonel  in  the  British  army.  Three  days 
after  obtaining  definite  promise  from  Congress,  he 
wrote  to  Lord  Barrington,  the  secretary  of  war,  in  the 
following  characteristic  vein  :  — 

"  My  Lord :  Although  I  can  by  no  means  subscribe 
to  the  opinion  of  divers  people  in  the  world,  that  an 
officer  on  half-pay  is  to  be  considered  in  the  service, 
yet  I  think  it  a  point  of  delicacy  to  pay  a  deference  to 
this  opinion,  erroneous  and  absurd  as  it  is.  I  there 
fore  apprise  your  lordship,  in  the  most  public  and 
solemn  manner,  that  I  do  renounce  my  half -pay  from 
the  date  hereof.  At  the  same  time  I  beg  leave  to 


72  CHARLES   LEE 

assure  your  lordship  that  whenever  it  may  please  his 
Majesty  to  call  me  forth  to  any  honourable  service 
against  the  natural  hereditary  enemies  of  our  country, 
or  in  defence  of  his  just  rights  and  dignity,  no  man 
will  obey  the  righteous  summons  with  more  zeal  and 
alacrity  than  myself ;  but  the  present  measures  seem 
to  me  so  absolutely  subversive  of  the  rights  and  lib 
erties  of  every  individual  subject,  so  destructive  to  the 
whole  empire  at  large,  and  ultimately  so  ruinous  to  his 
Majesty's  own  person,  dignity,  and  family,  that  I  think 
myself  obliged  in  conscience,  as  a  citizen,  Englishman, 
and  soldier  of  a  free  state,  to  exert  my  utmost  to  defeat 
them.  I  most  devoutly  pray  to  Almighty  God  to  direct 
his  Majestyinto  measures  more  consonant  to  his  interest 
and  honour,  and  more  conducive  to  the  happiness  and 
glory  of  his  people."1 

That  Lee  should  have  felt  called  upon  to  refuse 
further  pay  from  the  crown  at  the  moment  of  accept 
ing  a  commission  from  a  revolutionary  body  engaged 
in  maintaining  armed  resistance  to  the  crown  and  its 
officers,  one  would  think  but  natural.  That  in  so 
doing  he  should  have  declared  himself  to  be  acting  in 
deference  to  an  absurd  and  overstrained  notion  of  deli 
cacy,  shows  how  far  from  overstrained  his  own  sense 
of  delicacy  was.  His  letter2  is  an  unconscious  con 
fession  that  he  ought  long  ago  to  have  resigned  his 
half-pay.  Now  he  was  simply  making  a  merit  of 
necessity;  for  there  could  be  little  doubt  that,  as  soon 
as  the  news  of  his  American  commission  should  reach 
the  ears  of  the  ministry,  his  half-pay  would  be  cut  off, 

1  Lee  Papers,  I.  186. 

2  Found  in  February,  1858,  in  Sutton  Court,  Somerset,  home  of  Sir 
Edward  Strachey,  where  he  kept  many  documents. 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  73 

and  his  other  sources  of  income,  amounting  in  all  to 
about  ^"looo  yearly,  confiscated.  It  was  right  that  he 
should  be  indemnified  for  the  loss,  and  Congress  did 
not  for  a  moment  call  in  question  the  reasonableness 
of  his  request.  Nevertheless,  when  we  remember  how 
Lee  was  afterward  fond  of  prating  about  his  rare  dis 
interestedness  and  the  sacrifices  he  had  made  in  the 
cause  of  American  freedom,  when  we  consider  espe 
cially  how  he  liked  to  bring  himself  into  comparison 
with  Washington,  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  latter,  we 
cannot  help  feeling  the  strong  contrast  between  all 
this  careful  bargaining  and  the  conduct  of  the  high- 
minded  man  who,  at  that  same  moment,  in  accepting 
the  chief  command  of  the  Revolutionary  army,  refused 
to  take  a  penny  for  his  services. 

To  this  matter  of  Lee's  indemnification  our  atten 
tion  will  again  be  directed.  Meanwhile,  having  thus 
entered  the  American  service,  the  soldier  of  fortune 
accompanied  Washington  in  his  journey  to  Cam 
bridge,  and  at  every  town  through  which  they  passed 
he  seemed  to  be  quite  as  much  an  object  of  curiosity 
and  admiration  as  the  commander-in-chief.  Accord 
ing  to  Lee's  own  theory  of  the  relationship  between 
the  two,  his  was  the  controlling  mind.  He  was  the 
trained  and  scientific  European  soldier  to  whose  care 
had  been  in  a  measure  intrusted  this  raw  American 
general,  who  for  political  reasons  had  been  placed  in 
command  over  him.  In  point  of  fact,  Lee's  military 
experience,  as  we  have  here  passed  it  in  review,  had 
been  scarcely  more  extensive  than  Washington's ;  and 
of  actual  responsibility  he  had  wielded  much  less. 
Such  little  reputation  as  he  had  in  Europe  was  not 
that  of  a  soldier,  but  of  a  caustic  pamphleteer.  Yet  if 


74  CHARLES   LEE 

he  had  been  the  hero  of  a  dozen  great  battles,  if  he 
had  rescued  Portugal  from  the  Spaniard  and  Poland 
from  the  Turk,  he  could  not  have  claimed  or  obtained 
more  deference  in  this  country  than  he  did.  And  no 
one  treated  him  with  higher  consideration,  or  showed 
more  respect  for  his  opinions,  than  the  grand  and 
modest  hero,  all  unconscious  of  his  own  Titanic 
powers,  who  rode  beside  him. 

On  arriving  at  Cambridge,  Lee  was  placed  in  com 
mand  of  the  left  wing  of  the  army,  with  his  head 
quarters  at  Winter  Hill,  in  what  is  now  Somerville. 
The  only  incident  that  marked  his  stay  at  Cambridge 
was  a  correspondence  with  his  old  friend  Burgoyne, 
then  lately  arrived  in  Boston,  which  led  to  a  scheme 
for  a  conference  between  Lee  and  Burgoyne,  with  a 
view  to  the  restoration  of  an  amicable  understanding 
between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country.  The 
proposal  came  from  Burgoyne,  and  Lee  treated  it 
with  frankness  and  discretion.  He  laid  the  matter 
before  the  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachusetts,  and 
when  that  body  mildly  signified  its  disapproval  but 
left  it  for  Lee  to  decide,  he  sent  a  polite  note  to  Bur 
goyne  declining  the  interview.  This  was  in  July. 
Four  months  afterward  there  came  from  the  Old 
World  a  warning  that  Lee  was  not  a  man  of  trust 
worthy  character.  A  provisional  government  had  then 
been  formed  in  Massachusetts  with  the  president  of  the 
council  for  its  executive  head,  and  James  Otis,  in  one 
of  the  last  of  his  lucid  intervals,  then  occupied  that 
position.  On  the  i4th  of  November  Otis  sent  a  letter 
to  Lee,  quite  touching  for  its  high-minded  simplicity. 
The  council  had  come  into  possession  of  a  letter  from 
Ireland,  making  very  unfavourable  mention  of  Lee. 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  75 

It  produced  no  impression  upon  the  council.  On 
the  contrary,  says  Otis,  "  we  are  at  a  loss  to  know 
which  is  the  highest  evidence  of  your  virtues  —  the 
greatness  and  number  of  your  friends,  or  the  malice 
and  envy  of  your  foes." l  Good  advice  is  often  taken 
in  this  way.  A  century  has  passed  without  giving  us 
any  further  clew  to  this  letter. 

In  December  it  was  learned  that  Sir  Henry  Clinton 
was  about  to  start  from  Boston  on  an  expedition  to  the 
southward,    and    fears    were    entertained   for    Rhode 
Island  and  New  York.     Washington  accordingly  sent 
Lee   to   meet   the    emergency.       After    stopping    at 
Newport  long  enough  to  arrest  a  few  Tory  citizens, 
Lee  proceeded  in  January  to  New  York,  where  he  did 
good  service  in  beginning  the  fortifications  needed  for 
the  city  and  neighbouring  strategic  points.     On  the 
news  of   Montgomery's  death,   he  was    appointed    to 
command  the  army  in  Canada ;  but  scarcely  had  he 
been  informed  of  this  appointment  when  his  destina 
tion  was  changed.     On  the    iQth  of  February,  John 
Adams  wrote  him,  "  We  want  you  at  New  York,  we 
want  you  at  Cambridge,  we  want  you  in  Virginia,  but 
Canada  seems  of  more  importance  than  any  of  these 
places,  and  therefore  you  are  sent  there.     I  wish  you 
as    many   laurels  as  Wolfe  and    Montgomery  reaped 
there,    with  a  happier  fate."     From  such  expressions 
one    may  infer   that,  while    Adams    had   for  political 
reasons  urged  the  appointment  of  Washington  to  the 
chief  command  of  the   army,  he  still  placed  his  main 
reliance    upon    the  presumed  military  talents  of  Lee. 
At  any  rate  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  adventurer 
himself  so  interpreted  them.     On  the  same  day  a  letter 

1  Lee  Papers,  I.  218. 


76  CHARLES   LEE 

from  Franklin  said,  "  I  rejoice  that  you  are  going  to 
Canada  " ;  and  another  from  Benjamin  Rush  observed, 
"  I  tremble  only  at  the  price  of  victory  .  .  .  ;  should 
your  blood  mingle  with  the  blood  of  Wolfe,  Montcalm, 
and  Montgomery,  posterity  will  execrate  the  Plains  of 
Abraham  to  the  end  of  time."  But  on  the  3d  of 
March  Lee  wrote  to  Washington :  "  My  destination  is 
altered.  Instead  of  going  to  Canada,  I  am  appointed 
to  command  to  the  southward.  ...  As  I  am  the  only 
general  officer  on  the  continent  who  can  speak  and 
think  in  French,  I  confess  it  would  have  been  more 
prudent  to  have  sent  me  to  Canada,  but  I  shall  obey 
with  alacrity."  The  reason  for  this  change  was  the 
discovery  that  Clinton's  expedition  was  aimed  at  some 
point  in  the  Southern  states.  Its  effect  upon  Lee's 
fortunes  was  much  more  favourable  than  he  supposed. 
In  Canada,  even  if  he  had  possessed  all  the  genius  for 
which  people  gave  him  credit,  he  could  never  have 
held  his  ground  against  Carleton's  fine  army,  outnum 
bering  him  four  to  one ;  at  the  South,  on  the  other 
hand,  circumstances  played  into  his  hands  and  enabled 
him  very  cheaply  to  increase  his  reputation.  He  went 
first  to  Virginia,  where  he  stayed  till  the  middle  of  May, 
with  headquarters  at  Williamsburg.  The  burning 
political  question  that  spring  was  whether  the  colonies 
should  unite  in  a  declaration  of  independence,  and  on 
this  point  Lee  expressed  himself  with  his  customary 
emphasis.  To  Edward  Rutledge  he  wrote,  "  By  the 
eternal  God !  if  you  don't  declare  yourselves  inde 
pendent,  you  deserve  to  be  slaves."  At  the  hesitating 
action  of  the  Maryland  convention  in  March  he  lost 
all  patience.  "  What !  "  he  cried,  "  when  an  execrable 

1  Lee  Papers,  I.  312-314;  343. 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  77 

tyrant,  an  abandoned  parliament,  and  a  corrupt,  pusil 
lanimous  people  have  formed  a  hellish  league  to  rob 
you  of  everything  men  hold  most  dear;  is  it  possible 
there  should  be  creatures  who  march  on  two  legs  and 
call  themselves  human,  who  can  be  so  destitute  of 
sentiment,  courage,  and  feeling,  as  sobbingly  to  protest 
they  shall  consider  separation  from  these  butchers 
and  robbers  as  the  last  of  misfortunes?  Oh,  I  could 
brain  you  with  your  ladies'  fans  ! "*  We  shall  do  well 
to  remember  this  fervid  vehemence  when  we  come  to 
the  very  different  key  in  which  the  writer's  sentiments 
are  pitched  just  twelve  months  later. 

While  these  things  were  going  on,  Clinton  was 
cruising  about  Albemarle  Sound,  but  late  in  May  Sir 
Peter  Parker's  fleet  arrived,  with  fresh  troops  under 
Lord  Cornwallis,  and  presently  on  the  4th  of  June  the 
whole  armada  was  collected  before  the  entrance  to 
Charleston  harbour.  Lee,  following  by  land,  reached 
the  city  on  the  same  day.  Preparations  had  already 
been  made  to  resist  the  enemy,  and  Colonel  William 
Moultrie  was  constructing  his  famous  palmetto  fort  on 
Sullivan's  Island.  Lee  blustered  and  found  fault,  as 
usual,  sneered  at  the  palmetto  stronghold,  and  would 
have  ordered  Moultrie  to  abandon  it;  but  President 
Rutledge  persuaded  him  to  let  the  sagacious  colonel 
have  his  way.  In  the  battle  which  ensued,  on  the 
28th  of  June,  between  the  fort  and  the  fleet,  Moultrie 
won  a  decisive  and  very  brilliant  victory.  But  as 
Moultrie  was  as  yet  unknown  outside  of  South 
Carolina,  the  credit  was  by  most  people  inconsiderately 
given  to  Lee.  In  his  despatch  to  Congress  the  latter 
spoke  generously  of  the  courage  and  skill  of  his 

1  Langworthy's  "  Memoirs,"  p.  382. 


78  CHARLES   LEE 

subordinate  officer.  Perhaps  it  was  hardly  to  be  ex 
pected  of  him  that  he  should  frankly  confess  that  the 
victory  was  won  through  neglect  of  his  own  scientific 
advice.  On  the  departure  of  the  discomfited  British 
fleet,  the  "  hero  of  Charleston,"  as  he  was  now  called, 
prepared  to  invade  Florida;  but  early  in  September 
he  was  ordered  to  report  to  Congress  at  Philadelphia. 
The  question  of  his  indemnification  had  been  laid 
before  Congress  in  a  letter  from  Mr.  Rutledge,  dated 
the  4th  of  July,  and  action  was  now  taken  upon  it. 
The  bills  for  ^3000  drawn  upon  his  agent  in  England 
to  repay  the  sum  advanced  by  Robert  Morris  for  the 
purchase  of  the  Virginia  estate  had  been  protested  for 
lack  of  funds,  as  Lee's  property  in  England  had  been 
sequestrated.  Congress  accordingly  voted,  on  the  7th 
of  October,  to  advance  $30,000  to  General  Lee  by  way 
of  indemnification.  Should  his  English  estate  ever 
be  recovered,  he  was  to  repay  this  sum. 

This  point  having  been  made,  he  went  on  to  New 
York,  where  he  arrived  on  the  I4th  of  October,  and  took 
command  of  the  right  wing  of  Washington's  army 
upon  Harlem  Heights.  By  the  resignation  of  General 
Ward  in  the  spring,  Lee  had  become  senior  major- 
general,  and  in  the  event  of  disaster  to  Washington 
he  might  hope  at  length  to  realize  his  wishes  and  be 
come  commander-in-chief.  The  calamitous  fall  of 
Fort  Washington,  on  the  i6th  of  November,  seemed 
to  afford  the  desired  opportunity.  At  that  moment 
Washington,  whose  defensive  campaign  had  from  the 
outset  been  marked  in  every  particular  by  most  con 
summate  skill,  had  placed  half  of  his  army  on  the  New 
Jersey  side  of  the  river,  in  order  to  check  any  move 
ment  of  the  British  toward  Philadelphia.  He  had  left 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  79 

Lee  at  Northcastle,  with  the  other  half  of  the  army, 
about  seven  thousand  men,  with  instructions  to  await 
his  orders  and  move  promptly  upon  receiving  them. 
As  soon  as  it  had  become  evident  that  Howe  was 
about  to  throw  a  superior  force  against  Washington, 
the  latter  sent  an  order  to  Lee  to  cross  the  Hudson 
River  without  a  moment's  delay,  and  effect  a  junction 
of  the  two  parts  of  the  army.  But  Lee  pretended  to 
regard  the  order  in  the  light  of  mere  advice,  raised 
objections,  fumed  and  quibbled,  and  did  not  stir. 
While  Washington  was  now  obliged  to  fall  back 
through  New  Jersey,  in  order  to  avoid  fighting  against 
overwhelming  odds,  his  daily  messages  to  Lee  grew 
more  and  more  peremptory,  but  no  heed  was  paid  to 
them.  Many  people  were  throwing  the  blame  for  the 
loss  of  Fort  Washington  upon  the  commander-in-chief, 
and  were  contrasting  him  unfavourably  with  the  "  hero 
of  Charleston  " ;  and  Lee,  instead  of  obeying  orders, 
busied  himself  in  writing  letters  calculated  to  spread 
and  increase  this  disaffection  toward  Washington. 
Among  his  correspondents  were  some  of  the  men  who 
in  the  course  of  the  next  year  became  implicated  with 
the  Conway  cabal,  such  as  Gates  and  Dr.  Benjamin 
Rush.  In  letters  to  prominent  New  England  men,  he 
tried  to  play  upon  the  most  contemptible  of  all  the 
mean  feelings  that  disgrace  human  nature,  —  the  feel 
ing  of  sectional  dislike  and  distrust  which  many  in 
that  part  of  the  country  entertained  toward  the  great 
Virginian.  At  the  same  time  he  tried  to  assume  com 
mand  over  General  Heath,  whom  Washington  had  left 
in  charge  of  the  Highlands  with  very  explicit  instruc 
tions.  Lee  wished  to  detach  part  of  Heath's  force, 
and  announced  that  since  a  broad  river  intervened 


80  CHARLES   LEE 

between  himself  and  Washington,  he  now  considered 
himself  invested  with  an  independent  command.  But 
for  courage  and  fidelity  Heath  was  a  true  bulldog. 
Lee's  letters  to  him  grew  more  and  more  angry.  "  I 
suppose  you  think,"  said  Lee,  "  that  if  General  Wash 
ington  should  remove  to  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  never 
theless  the  instructions  he  left  with  you  are  to  be 
followed  in  spite  of  what  your  superior  officers  might 
say ;  but  I  will  have  you  to  understand  that  I  command 
on  this  side  of  the  river,  and  for  the  future  I  must  and 
will  be  obeyed."1  Heath,  however,  was  immovable; 
and  a  letter  from  Washington,  arriving  the  next  day, 
declared  his  own  view  of  the  case  in  such  unequivocal 
language  that  Lee  did  not  deem  it  prudent  to  push  his 
Patagonian  theory  any  farther.  So  he  desisted,  with 
a  very  ill  grace,  and  on  the  2d  of  December,  after  a 
fortnight's  delay,  he  crossed  the  Hudson,  with  a  force 
diminished  to  four  thousand  men.  On  that  same  day 
Washington  in  his  swift  retreat  reached  Princeton, 
with  his  force  diminished  to  three  thousand  men. 
The  terms  of  service  of  many  of  the  soldiers  had 
expired,  and  the  prospect  was  so  dismal,  that  few  were 
willing  to  reenlist.  It  was  the  gloomiest  moment  in 
the  Revolutionary  War  and  in  Washington's  career; 
and  the  most  alarming  feature  in  the  whole  situation 
was  this  outrageous  insubordination  on  the  part  of 
Lee.  Washington  had  ordered  him  to  keep  well  to 
the  westward,  and  had  even  indicated  the  particular 
road  and  ferry  by  which  he  wished  him  to  cross  the 
Delaware,  near  Alexandria,  but  in  flat  disregard  of 
these  orders  Lee  marched  slowly  to  Morristown.  At 
this  moment  Gates  was  approaching,  on  his  way  from 

JLee  Papers,  II.  313. 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  8 1 

Ticonderoga,  with  seven  regiments  sent  down  by 
Schuyler  to  Washington's  assistance ;  but  Lee  inter 
posed,  and  with  more  success  than  he  had  had  in 
Heath's  case,  diverted  three  of  these  regiments  to 
Morristown.  By  this  time  Washington  had  retreated 
beyond  the  Delaware,  and  almost  everybody  considered 
his  campaign  hopelessly  ruined.  It  seemed  as  if  the 
cause  of  American  independence  was  decisively  over 
thrown,  and  it  certainly  was  not  Charles  Lee's  fault 
that  it  was  not  so.  His  design  in  thus  moving  inde 
pendently  was  to  operate  upon  the  British  flank  from 
Morristown,  a  position  of  which  Washington  himself 
afterward  illustrated  the  great  value.  The  selfish 
schemer  wished  to  secure  for  himself  whatever  advan 
tage  might  be  gained  from  such  a  movement.  His 
plan  was  to  look  on  and  see  Washington  defeated  and 
humbled,  and  then  strike  a  blow  on  his  own  account. 
If  Cornwallis  had  prevailed  upon  Howe  to  let  him  col 
lect  a  flotilla  of  boats  and  push  on  across  the  river  in 
pursuit  of  Washington,  there  would  have  been  a 
chance  offered  to  Lee  to  strike  the  enemy's  rear  before 
the  crossing  had  been  fully  effected.  But  Howe,  per 
haps  mindful  of  such  a  contingency,  decided  to  wait  a 
few  days  in  the  hope  of  seeing  the  river  frozen  hard 
enough  to  bear  troops.  In  the  meantime  Lee's  castle 
in  the  air  was  overthrown  by  his  own  foolishness.  On 
the  1 3th  of  December,  having  left  his  army  in  charge 
of  Sullivan,  he  had  for  some  unknown  reason  passed 
the  night  at  WThite's  tavern  in  Baskingridge,  about 
four  miles  distant.  A  zealous  Tory  in  the  neighbour 
hood  had  noted  the  fact,  and  galloped  off  to  the 
nearest  British  encampment,  eighteen  miles  distant. 
Lieutenant-colonel  Harcourt,  with  Captain  Banastre 


82  CHARLES   LEE 

Tarleton  and  a  party  of  thirty-eight  horse,  immediately 
started  forth  in  quest  of  such  high  game.  At  day 
break  young  Major  Wilkinson  arrived  at  the  inn,  with 
a  message  from  Gates,  and  found  Lee  in  bed.  The 
general  jumped  up,  thrust  his  feet  into  slippers,  threw 
on  an  old  flannel  gown  over  his  nightclothes,  and  pro 
ceeded  to  write  a  letter  to  Gates,  setting  forth  his  own 
exalted  merits  and  Washington's  matchless  stupidity. 
He  had  hardly  signed  and  folded  it  when  Wilkinson 
at  the  window  screamed,  "  The  British  !  the  British  !  " 
In  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  the  house  was  surrounded 
and  the  blustering  letter-writer  dragged  from  his  bed 
room.  Several  of  these  soldiers  had  served  with  Lee 
in  Portugal  and  witnessed  his  gallantry  at  Villa  Velha. 
They  were  now  surprised  and  disgusted  at  seeing  him 
fall  on  his  knees  in  abject  terror,  raving  like  a  mad 
man  and  begging  Colonel  Harcourt  to  spare  his  life. 
"  Had  he  behaved  with  proper  spirit,"  says  Captain 
Harris,  in  his  journal,  "  I  should  have  pitied  him." 
No  time  was  wasted.  They  picked  him  up,  bare 
headed  and  half-dressed,  mounted  him  on  Wilkinson's 
horse,  tied  him  hand  and  foot,  and  led  him  off,  with 
taunts  and  mirthful  jeers.  Of  course,  they  said,  he 
must  not  be  surprised  if  General  Howe  were  to  treat 
him  as  a  deserter,  because  he  was  one.  The  miserable 
creature  muttered  and  cursed,  and  let  fall  one  remark 
which  they  did  not  quite  comprehend.  "Just  as  I  had 
got  the  supreme  command,"  said  he,1  and  presently 
added,  "  The  game  is  up,  it  is  all  up."  So  they  carried 
him  off  to  New  Brunswick,  while  his  troops,  thus 
opportunely  relieved  of  such  a  commander,  were 
promptly  marched  by  Sullivan  to  Washington's  assist- 

1  Moore,  p.  63. 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  83 

ance,  in  time  to  take  part  in  the  glorious  movement 
upon  Trenton  and  Princeton.  Had  it  not  been  for 
Lee's  capture,  in  the  very  nick  of  time,  it  is  doubtful 
if  Washington  would  have  had  men  enough  to  under 
take  that  movement,  which  instantly  reversed  the 
fortunes  of  the  campaign  and  opened  the  way  for  the 
decisive  triumphs  of  the  next  year.  But  the  Ameri 
cans,  who  did  not  possess  the  clew  to  Lee's  strange 
conduct,  felt  that  they  had  lost -a  treasure. 

Of  his  conduct  in  captivity,  which  would  soon  have 
afforded  such  a  clew,  nothing  was  known  until  all  the 
actors  in  those  stirring  scenes  had  been  for  many  a 
year  in  their  graves.  Lee  was  taken  to  New  York 
and  confined  in  the  City  Hall,  where  he  was  courte 
ously  treated,  but  he  well  understood  that  his  life  was 
in  danger  in  case  the  British  government  should  see 
fit  to  regard  him  as  a  deserter  from  the  army.  Sir 
William  Howe  wrote  home  for  instructions,  and  in 
reply  was  directed  to  send  his  prisoner  to  England  for 
trial.  Lee  had  already  been  sent  on  board  ship,  when 
a  letter  from  Washington  put  a  stop  to  these  proceed 
ings.  The  letter  informed  Howe  that  Washington 
held  five  Hessian  field-officers  as  hostages  for  Lee's 
personal  safety.  In  thus  choosing  Hessians  as  hos 
tages,  Washington  showed  his  unfailing  sagacity.  The 
king's  feeling  toward  Lee  was  extremely  bitter  and 
revengeful,  and  no  doubt  he  would  have  taken  pleasure 
in  putting  him  to  an  ignominious  death ;  but  to  disre 
gard  the  safety  of  the  Hessian  officers  would  arouse  a 
dangerous  spirit  of  disaffection  among  the  German 
troops.  In  this  quandary  the  obstinate  and  vindictive 
king  entered  upon  a  discussion  that  lasted  just  a  year. 
Letters  went  back  and  forth  between  Howe  and  the 


84  ,  CHARLES   LEE 

ministry  on  the  one  hand,  and  Howe  and  Washington 
on  the  other,  until  at  length,  in  December,  1777, 
Howe  was  instructed  to  consider  Lee  a  prisoner  of 
war,  and  subject  to  exchange  as  such  whenever  con 
venient. 

During  this  interval,  while  his  fate  was  in  suspense, 
the  prisoner  was  busy  in  operations  on  his  own  ac 
count.  First  he  assured  the  brothers  Howe  that  he 
was  opposed  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence ;  that 
"  if  the  Americans  had  followed  his  advice,  matters 
could  never  have  gone  to  such  a  length ;  " 1  and  even 
now  he  hoped,  if  he  could  only  obtain  an  interview 
with  a  committee  from  Congress,  to  be  able  to  open 
negotiations  for  an  honourable  and  satisfactory  adjust 
ment  of  all  existing  difficulties.  The  Howes,  who 
were  well  disposed  toward  the  Americans  and  sin 
cerely  anxious  for  peace,  allowed  him  to  ask  for  the 
interview;  but  Congress  refused  to  grant  it.  Lee's 
extraordinary  conduct  before  his  capture  had  some 
what  injured  his  reputation,  and  there  were  vague  sus 
picions,  though  no  one  knew  exactly  what  to  suspect 
him  of.  These  doubts  affected  the  soundness  of  his 
judgment  rather  than  of  his  character.  His  behaviour 
was  considered  wayward  and  eccentric,  but  was  not 
seen  to  be  treacherous.  The  worst  that  was  now  sup 
posed  about  him  was  that  he  had  suffered  himself  to 
be  hoodwinked  by  the  Howes  into  requesting  a  con 
ference  that  could  answer  no  good  purpose.  If  the 
truth  had  only  been  known,  how  sorely  would  all  good 
people  have  been  astonished !  No  sooner  was  the 
conference  refused  than  the  wretch  went  over  to  the 
enemy,  and  sought  to  curry  favour  with  the  Howes  by 

1  Moore,  p.  83. 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  85 

giving  them  aid  and  counsel  for  the  next  campaign 
against  the  Americans.  He  went  so  far  as  to  write 
out  for  them  a  detailed  plan  of  operations.  After  the 
disastrous  result  of  the  campaign  of  1777  the  brothers 
did  not  wish  to  disclose  the  secret  of  their  peculiar 
obligations  to  such  an  adviser.  Lee's  document  re 
mained  in  possession  of  their  private  secretary,  Sir 
Henry  Strachey,  who  carried  it  home  to  England  next 
year,  and  carefully  stowed  it  away  with  other  papers 
in  the  library  at  Sutton  Court,  his  fine,  hospitable  old 
country  house  in  Somersetshire.  There,  after  a  slum 
ber  of  eighty  years,  it  was  found  and  perused  by  intelli 
gent  eyes,1  and  it  has  since  found  its  way  into  the 
Lenox  Library  in  New  York.  The  paper  is  in  Lee's 
handwriting,  folded,  and  indorsed  as  "  Mr.  Lee's  Plan 
—  29th  March  1777."  The  indorsement  is  in  the 
handwriting  of  Sir  Henry  Strachey.  In  this  paper 
Lee  expressly  abandons  the  American  cause,  enters 
"  sincerely  and  zealously  "  (those  are  his  words)  into 
the  plans  of  the  British  commanders,  and  recommends 
an  expedition  to  Chesapeake  Bay  essentially  similar  to 
that  which  was  undertaken  in  the  following  summer. 
This  elaborate  paper  throws  some  light  upon  the 
movements  of  General  Howe,  in  July  and  August, 
1777,  which  were  formerly  regarded  as  so  strange. 
Instead  of  moving  straight  up  the  Hudson  River,  to 
cooperate  with  Burgoyne  in  accordance  with  the  care 
fully  studied  plan  of  the  ministry,  General  Howe 
wasted  the  summer  in  a  series  of  movements  which 
landed  him  at  the  end  of  August  fifty  miles  south  of 
Philadelphia,  with  Washington's  army  in  front  of  him, 
while  the  gallant  Burgoyne,  three  hundred  miles  away, 

1  Magazine  of  American  History,  III.  450. 


86  CHARLES   LEE 

was  marching  to  his  doom.  This  supreme  blunder 
on  the  part  of  Howe  was  ruinous  to  the  British  cause. 
It  led  directly  to  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne,  and  thus 
to  the  French  alliance  and  indirectly  to  Yorktown. 
The  blunder  was  no  doubt  largely  due  to  Lee's  wild 
advice,  but  we  owe  him  small  thanks  for  it.  It  is  im 
possible  to  read  his  paper  and  not  see  that  in  his  stu 
pendous  conceit  he  regarded  himself  as  the  palladium 
of  the  American  cause.  His  capture  he  regarded  as 
the  final  overthrow  of  that  cause.  What  was  left  of  it 
could  be  of  no  use  to  anybody,  and  he  had  better 
secure  good  terms  for  himself  by  helping  to  stamp  it 
out  as  quickly  as  possible. 

If  anything  had  been  known  about  these  treacherous 
shifts  on  the  part  of  Lee,  he  certainly  never  would  have 
been  taken  back  into  the  American  service.  As  noth 
ing  whatever  was  known  about  the  matter,  he  was 
exchanged  for  General  Richard  Prescott  early  in  May, 
1778,  and  joined  Washington's  army  at  Valley  Forge. 
What  a  frightful  situation  for  the  Americans  :  to  have, 
for  the  second  officer  in  their  army,  the  man  whom  the 
chances  of  war  might  at  any  moment  invest  with  the 
chief  command,  such  a  man  as  this  who  had  so  lately 
been  plotting  their  destruction !  What  would  Wash 
ington,  what  would  Congress,  have  thought,  had  the 
truth  in  its  blackness  been  so  much  as  dreamed  of? 
But  why,  we  may  ask,  did  the  intriguer  come  back  ? 
Why  did  he  think  it  worth  his  while  to  pose  once  more 
in  the  attitude  of  an  American  ?  Could  it  have  been 
with  the  intention  of  playing  into  the  hands  of  the  en 
emy  ?  and  could  the  British  commander,  knowing  this 
purpose,  have  thus  gladly  acquiesced  in  his  return  ?  It 
is  hard  to  say,  but  probably  this  explanation  is  too 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  87 

simple  to  cover  the  case.  We  must  remember  that 
Sir  William  Howe,  the  Whig  general,  had  just  re 
signed  his  command  and  gone  home  to  defend  his 
military  conduct  against  the  fierce  attacks  of  the  king's 
party.  His  successor,  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  was  not  only 
a  Tory,  but  the  personal  relations  between  the  two 
were  not  altogether  friendly ;  so  that  it  is  hardly  credi 
ble  that  Clinton  could  have  known  anything  about 
Lee's  cooperation  with  Howe ;  if  he  had  known  it, 
the  secret  would  not  have  been  buried  for  eighty  years. 
It  is  much  more  likely  that,  since  the  disastrous  failure 
of  Lee's  advice,  he  was  reduced  to  painful  insignifi 
cance  in  the  British  camp,  and  so  thought  it  worth 
while  to  try  his  fortune  again  with  the  Americans. 
The  past  year  had  seen  the  tables  completely  turned. 
The  American  star  was  now  in  the  ascendant ;  most 
people  expected  to  see  the  British  driven  to  their  ships 
before  autumn ;  and  Lord  North's  commissioners  were 
on  their  way  across  the  ocean,  to  offer  terms  of  peace. 
While  Lee  could  see  all  this,  he  could  not  see  how 
greatly  Washington's  popular  strength  had  increased 
during  the  past  winter,  as  the  intrigues  against  him 
had  recoiled  upon  their  authors.  The  days  of  the 
Conway  cabal  were  really  gone  by,  but  this  was  not 
yet  apparent  to  everybody.  The  ambitious  schemes 
of  Gates  were  frustrated,  and  Lee  might  now  hope 
again  to  try  his  hand  at  supplanting  Washington,  with 
one  more  rival  out  of  the  way.  Indeed,  there  is  some 
reason  for  believing  that  the  very  schemers  and  syco 
phants  who  had  been  putting  Gates  forward  were  al 
ways  ready,  if  occasion  should  offer,  to  drop  him  and 
take  up  Lee  instead.  Doubtless,  therefore,  Lee  came 
back  in  the  renewed  hope  of  supplanting  Washington. 


88  CHARLES   LEE 

Whether  he  can  also  have  had  any  secret  understand 
ings  with  the  enemy,  it  is  hard  to  say.  A  very  friendly 
letter  from  a  British  gentleman,  George  Johnson,  dated 
at  Philadelphia,  the  ijth  of  June,  and  addressed  to 
General  Lee  at  Valley  Forge,  observes  in  its  post 
script,  "  Sir  Henry  Clinton  bids  me  thank  you  for 
your  letter." l  What  this  letter  may  have  referred  to, 
or  whether  it  is  still  anywhere  in  existence,  or  whether 
there  was  any  further  correspondence  between  Clinton 
and  Lee,  we  do  not  know.  Sir  Henry  had,  at  any 
rate,  probably  seen  and  heard  enough  to  confirm  the 
declared  opinion  of  Sir  Joseph  Yorke,  that  such  a  man 
as  Charles  Lee  was  "the  worst  present  the  Americans 
could  receive."  In  the  campaign  just  beginning  he 
proved  himself  to  be  such. 

When,  in  June,  Sir  Henry  Clinton  evacuated  Phila 
delphia,  it  was  his  purpose  to  retreat  across  New 
Jersey  to  the  city  of  New  York  without  a  battle,  if 
possible.  It  was  Washington's  object  to  attack  Clin 
ton  on  his  retreat,  cut  to  pieces  the  rear  division  of  his 
army,  and  thus  essentially  cripple  him.  Lee  at  first 
endeavoured  to  dissuade  Washington  from  making 
such  an  attack.  Then,  when  it  was  resolved  to  make 
the  oblique  attack  upon  the  rear  division,  with  the 
purpose  of  cutting  it  asunder  from  the  advanced  divi 
sion,  Lee  showed  such  unwillingness  to  undertake  the 
task  that  Washington  assigned  it  to  Lafayette.  Each 
of  the  opposing  armies  numbered  about  fifteen  thou 
sand  men,  and  since  the  arrival  of  Steuben,  with  his 
Prussian  tactics  and  discipline,  the  quality  of  the 
American  troops  had  been  signally  improved.  Each 
army  was  marching  in  two  divisions,  three  or  four 

*Lee  Papers,  II.  406. 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  89 

miles  apart.  The  American  advance,  of  about  six 
thousand  men,  under  Lafayette,  was  to  attack  the 
British  rear  division  upon  its  left  flank  and  engage 
it  until  Washington,  with  the  remainder  of  the  army, 
should  come  up  and  complete  its  discomfiture.  At 
the  last  moment  Lee  changed  his  mind  and  solicited 
the  command  of  the  advance.  The  nobleness  of 
Washington's  nature  made  him  very  kind  in  his  judg 
ments  of  other  men.  He  was  always  ready  to  make 
allowances,  and  up  to  this  time  he  had  found  some 
charitable  interpretation  for  Lee's  behaviour.  Now 
he  showed  the  defects  of  his  excellence,  and  was  too 
trustful.  He  so  arranged  matters  that  Lee  should 
have  the  command,  and  Lafayette  most  gracefully 
yielded  the  point.  Washington's  orders  to  Lee  were 
explicit  and  peremptory.  On  the  morning  of  the  28th 
of  June  the  advance  division  overtook  the  enemy  near 
Monmouth  Court  House.  The  position  was  admirable 
for  an  oblique  attack  upon  the  British  flank,  and  in 
the  opinion  of  Anthony  Wayne  and  other  brigade 
commanders  a  prompt  and  spirited  attack  was  called 
for.  But  the  fighting  had  scarcely  begun  when  Lee's 
conduct  became  so  strange  and  his  orders  so  contra 
dictory  as  to  excite  uneasiness  on  the  part  of  Lafay 
ette,  who  sent  a  messenger  back  to  Washington, 
urging  him  to  make  all  possible  haste  to  the  front. 
When  the  commander-in-chief,  with  his  main  force, 
had  passed  Freehold  church  on  his  way  toward  the 
scene  of  action,  he  was  astonished  at  the  spectacle  of 
Lee's  division  in  disorderly  retreat,  with  the  enemy 
close  upon  their  heels.  A  little  farther  on  he  met  the 
faithless  general.  The  men  who  then  beheld  Wash 
ington's  face,  and  listened  to  his  terrific  outburst  of 


90  CHARLES   LEE 

wrath,  could  never  forget  it  for  the  rest  of  their  lives.1 
It  was  one  of  those  moments  that  live  in  tradition. 
People  of  to-day  who  know  nothing  else  about  Charles 
Lee  think  of  him  vaguely  as  the  man  whom  Wash 
ington  upbraided  at  Monmouth.  People  who  know 
nothing  else  about  the  battle  of  Monmouth  still  dimly 
associate  it  with  the  disgrace  of  a  General  Lee.  Leav- 

1The  following  letter  gives  a  version  of  the  rebuke  :  — 

"  CHARLOTTEVILLE,  VA.,  Oct.  26,  1895. 
"  PROFESSOR  JOHN  FISKE  :  — 

"  Dear  Sir :  —  At  your  request,  I  have  reduced  to  writing  the  incident 
I  related  to  you  last  evening,  at  the  reception,  after  your  lecture  upon  Gen 
eral  Charles  Lee  —  l  The  Soldier  of  Fortune.' 

"  I  am,  Sir, 

"  Yours  faithfully, 

"WM.  ROBERTSON. 

**  In  the  year  1840,  while  I  was  a  student  at  Hampton,  Sydney  College, 
and  boarding  in  the  family  of  Mrs.  Ann  Rice  (the  widow  of  the  Rev.  John 
H.  Rice,  D.D.),  her  father,  Major  Jacob  Morton,  a  Revolutionary  soldier, 
living  in  an  adjoining  county  (Cumberland),  came  to  visit  her.  Major 
Morton  was  then  upward  of  eighty  years  old,  but  still  in  full  possession  of 
all  his  mental  faculties.  .  .  . 

"  The  talk  at  the  dinner  table  was  of  his  reminiscences  of  the  Revolu 
tionary  War  .  .  .  the  Battle  of  Monmouth.  ...  I  sought  an  opportun 
ity  of  further  conversation  with  him,  and  having  heard  or  read  that  just 
before  that  battle  General  Washington,  on  meeting  General  Charles  Lee  in 
retreat,  had  <  cursed  and  swore '  at  him,  I  asked  Major  Morton  whether  that 
report  was  true.  '  No,  sir  !  No,  sir  ! '  replied  the  major  with  animation. 
1  It  is  not  true  !  It  so  happened  that  the  meeting  of  General  Washington 
with  General  Lee  on  that  day  took  place  within  a  very  few  yards  of  me, 
and  I  saw  and  heard  all  that  passed  between  them.  I  will  tell  you  how  it 
was.  Our  troops  were  marching  rapidly,  expecting  soon  to  be  engaged 
with  the  British ;  the  day  was  very  hot,  the  road  heavy  with  sand,  our  men 
fatigued  by  the  march.  I  was  then  a  sergeant  in  my  company  and  had  fre 
quently  to  face  about  in  order  to  keep  my  platoon  aligned  on  the  march,  — 
myself  walking  backwards.  While  doing  so,  I  saw  General  Washington 
coming  from  the  rear  of  our  column,  riding  very  rapidly  along  the  right 
flank  of  the  column ;  and  as  he  came  nearer,  my  attention  was  fixed  upon 
him  with  wonder  and  astonishment,  for  he  was  evidently  under  strong  emo- 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  91 

ing  the  cowering  and  trembling  culprit,  Washington 
hurried  on  to  rally  the  troops  and  give  the  orders 
which  turned  impending  defeat  into  victory.  As  he 
rode  about  the  field,  his  suspicions  of  foul  play  were 
more  and  more  thoroughly  aroused,  and  presently, 
meeting  Lee  again,  he  ordered  him  to  the  rear.  The 

tion  and  excitement.  I  never  saw  such  a  countenance  before.  It  was  like 
a  thunder-cloud  before  the  flash  of  lightning.  Just  as  he  reached  the  flank 
of  my  platoon  he  reined  up  his  horse  a  little,  and  raising  his  right  hand 
high  above  his  head,  he  cried  out  with  a  loud  voice,  "  My  God  !  General 
Lee,  what  are  you  about  ?"  Until  that  moment  I  had  not  known  that  Gen 
eral  Lee  was  near ;  but  on  turning  my  head  a  little  to  the  left  (still  stepping 
backward  on  the  march)  I  found  that  General  Lee  had  ridden  from  the 
head  of  our  column  along  our  right  flank  and  was  only  a  few  yards  distant, 
in  front  of  General  Washington.  In  answer  to  General  Washington's  ex 
cited  exclamation,  "My  God!  General  Lee,  what  are  you  about?  "  General 
Lee  began  to  make  some  explanation ;  but  General  Washington  impatiently 
interrupted  him,  and  with  his  hand  still  raised  high  above  his  head,  waving 
it  angrily,  exclaimed,  "  Go  to  the  rear,  sir,"  spurred  his  horse,  and  rode 
rapidly  forward.  The  whole  thing  occurred  as  quickly  as  I  can  telMt  to 
you.1 

"  This  conversation  with  old  Major  Morton  interested  me  profoundly 
and  made  a  deep  impression  upon  my  memory.  My  recollection  of  it  is 
still  (after  the  lapse  of  about  fifty-five  years)  clear  and  distinct.  What  I 
have  written  about  it,  if  not  in  his  very  words,  is  substantially  what  he  told 
me.  The  words,  'My  God  !  General  Lee,  what  are  you  about  ?  '  are  the 
very  words  which  he  declared  that  General  Washington  uttered.  I  will 
add  that  Major  Morton,  in  all  the  region  of  country  in  which  he  spent  his 
long  life,  was  reputed  to  be  a  man  of  the  very  highest  integrity  —  no  one 
who  ever  knew  him  ever  doubted  or  questioned  his  veracity.  Indeed,  he 
was  proverbial  for  honesty,  courage,  and  veracity.  Altho1  only  a  sergeant 
at  the  date  of  the  battle  of  Monmouth,  he  afterward  rose  to  the  rank  of  a 
major  in  the  Revolutionary  Army  ;  and  in  the  service  acquired  the  sobri 
quet  of  'Solid  Column.1  When,  in  1825,  General  Lafayette  revisited  the 
United  States,  and  held  a  levee  at  Richmond,  Va.,  at  which  many  of  the 
surviving  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  Revolution  from  various  parts  of 
the  state  of  Virginia  attended,  and  were  successively  presented  to  him  ;  as 
Major  Morton's  turn  came  to  be  presented,  Lafayette  said,  cordially*  'Oh, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  introduce  "  old  Solid  Column  "  to  me,  I  remember 
him  well.1 

"WM.  ROBERTSON." 


92  CHARLES   LEE 

next  day  Lee,  having  recovered  his  self-possession  and 
thought  of  a  line  of  defence,  wrote  to  Washington 
demanding  an  apology  for  his  language  on  the  battle 
field.  Washington  replied  that  he  believed  his  words 
to  have  been  fully  warranted  by  the  circumstances,  and 
added  that  a  court-martial  would  soon  afford  General 
Lee  an  opportunity  for  explaining  his  conduct.  "  Quite 
right,"  answered  Lee;  "you  cannot  afford  me  greater 
pleasure  than  in  giving  me  the  opportunity  of  showing 
to  America  the  sufficiency  of  her  respective  servants. 
I  trust  that  the  temporary  power  of  office,  and  the  tin 
sel  dignity  attending  it,  will  not  be  able,  by  all  the 
mists  they  can  raise,  to  obfuscate  the  bright  rays  of 
truth." 1  Washington  answered  by  placing  Lee  under 
arrest.  He  was  tried  by  court-martial  on  three  charges : 
(i)  Disobedience  of  orders  in  not  attacking  the 
enemy.  (2)  Misbehaviour  before  the  enemy  in  mak 
ing  an  unnecessary,  disorderly,  and  shameful  retreat. 
(3)  Gross  disrespect  to  the  commander-in-chief.  On 
the  1 2th  of  August  he  was  found  guilty  on  all  three 
charges,  and  suspended  from  all  command  in  the  army 
for  the  term  of  one  year. 

For  a  long  time  Lee's  conduct  at  Monmouth  seemed 
quite  unintelligible.  The  discoveries  since  made  re 
garding  his  behaviour  in  captivity  do  not  yet  clear  it  up, 
though  they  make  it  seem  susceptible  of  the  worst  in 
terpretation.  If  we  suppose  that  he  was  actually  in 
collusion  with  Clinton,  the  simplest  supposition  is  that 
he  intended  to  wreck  the  army ;  and  certainly  few 
things  could  be  better  calculated  to  do  so  than  throw 
ing  a  mass  of  disorderly  fugitives  in  the  face  of  the 
advancing  reenforcements.  But  I  believe  the  true 

Papers,  II.  437. 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  93 

explanation  is  not  quite  so  simple  as  this.  It  does  not 
seem  probable  that  there  was  any  secret  understanding 
with  Clinton.  It  is  much  more  likely  that  Lee  was 
again  at  his  old  trick  of  trying  to  discredit  and  supplant 
Washington.  With  this  end  in  view  he  first  loudly 
condemned  Washington's  plan  of  battle  and  refused 
to  take  the  part  assigned  him.  On  second  thought  it 
occurred  to  him  that  by  taking  that  command  he 
might  insure  the  defeat  of  Washington's  plan,  and 
still  bring  off  the  army  to  such  a  position  that  he 
might  claim  the  credit  for  having  saved  it  from  the 
effects  of  Washington's  rashness.  This  explanation 
is  indicated  by  the  line  of  defence  which  he  chose  upon 
his  trial.  His  retreat  lay  across  two  deep  ravines,  and 
it  was  upon  the  brink  of  the  second  one  that  Wash 
ington  met  him.  He  argued  ingeniously  before  the 
court-martial  that  if  he  had  attacked  as  Washington 
directed,  the  result  would  have  been  disastrous  ;  but 
in  his  retreat  he  was  simply  luring  the  enemy  across 
these  ravines  into  a  position  where  he  could  suddenly 
turn  upon  him  and  defeat  him  with  a  dangerous  ravine 
at  his  back.  All  this  would  have  been  done,  he  declared, 
if  Washington  had  not  come  up  and  spoiled  the  game. 
This  explanation  may  have  been  concocted  after  the 
event ;  but  it  is  not  unlikely  that  Lee  may  really  have 
entertained  some  such  wild  scheme.  A  very  difficult 
plan  it  would  be  to  carry  out,  especially  with  his  brigade 
commanders  all  hopelessly  bewildered.  Confusion 
could  not  but  result,  and  well  indeed  it  was  that  the 
reins  of  the  runaway  team  were  suddenly  seized  by  the 
powerful  hand  of  Washington. 

Such  is  the  explanation  least  unfavourable  to  Lee. 
Even  on  his  own  showing  it  is  one  of  the  most  out- 


94  CHARLES   LEE 

rageous  cases  of  insubordination  recorded  in  the  annals 
of  war.  But  one  incident,  mentioned  in  the  testimony 
of  Steuben,  throws  perhaps  the  blackest  shade  upon 
the  conduct  of  this  miserable  creature.  After  Lee  had 
been  ordered  to  the  rear,  as  he  rode  away  baffled  and 
spiteful,  he  met  Steuben  with  a  couple  of  brigades 
hurrying  to  the  front  in  pursuance  of  an  order  just 
received  from  Washington.  Lee  now  tried  to  turn 
him  off  in  another  direction,  alleging  that  the  order 
was  misunderstood.  But  the  good  baron  was  not  to 
be  trifled  with  and  resolutely  kept  on  his  way.1  Lee 
was  so  enraged  at  this  testimony  that  he  made  reflec 
tions  upon  Steuben,  which  presently  called  forth  a 
challenge  from  that  gentleman.2  That  "  sprightliness 
of  imagination  "  heretofore  mentioned  seems  now  to 
have  deserted  our  soldier  of  fortune.  It  is  to  be  re 
gretted  that  we  have  not  the  reply  in  which  he 
declined  the  encounter.  There  is  a  reference  to  it  in 
a  letter  from  Alexander  Hamilton  to  the  Baron  von 
Steuben,  a  fortnight  after  the  challenge :  "  I  have 
read  your  letter  to  Lee  with  pleasure.  It  was  conceived 
in  terms  which  the  offence  merited,  and  if  he  had  any 
feeling,  must  have  been  felt  by  him.  Considering  the 
pointedness  and  severity  of  your  expressions,  his 
answer  was  certainly  a  very  modest  one,  and  proved 
that  he  had  not  a  violent  appetite  for  so  close  a  tete-a- 
tete  as  you  seemed  disposed  to  insist  upon.  His 
evasions,  if  known  to  the  world,  would  do  him  very 
little  honour."8  Upon  what  grounds  Lee  refused  to 
fight  with  Steuben,  it  is  hard  to  surmise;  for  within 
another  week  we  find  him  engaged  in  a  duel  with 

1  Lee  Papers,  III.  96.  2 Id.  253. 

3  Id.  254. 


THE   SOLDIER   OF   FORTUNE  95 

Washington's  aide-de-camp,  Colonel  Laurens,  for 
whom  Hamilton  acted  as  second.1  In  this  affair  Lee 
was  slightly  wounded  in  the  right  arm.  His  venomous 
tongue  now  kept  getting  him  into  trouble  more  than 
ever.  He  could  not  hear  Washington's  name  men 
tioned  without .  losing  his  temper.  After  some  time 
he  addressed  one  of  his  impudent  letters  to  Congress, 
and  was  immediately  dismissed  from  the  army.  He 
retired  in  disgrace  to  his  estate  in  the  Shenandoah 
valley,  and  lived  there  long  enough  to  witness  the  final 
triumph  of  the  cause  he  had  done  so  much  to  injure. 
On  a  visit  to  Philadelphia  he  was  suddenly  seized  with 
a  fever,  and  died  in  a  tavern,  friendless  and  alone,  on 
the  2d  of  October,  1782.  His  last  words,  uttered  in 
delirium,  were,  "  Stand  by  me,  my  brave  grenadiers  !  " 
A  scoffer  to  the  last,  he  had  expressed  in  his  will  a 
wish  that  he  might  not  be  buried  within  a  mile  of  any 
church  or  meeting-house,  as  since  his  arrival  in  Amer 
ica  he  had  kept  so  much  bad  company  in  this  world 
that  he  did  not  wish  to  continue  it  in  the  next.  He 
was  buried,  however,  in  the  cemetery  of  Christ  Church, 
and  his  funeral  was  attended  by  the  President  of  Con 
gress  and  other  eminent  citizens. 

General  Lee  was  one  of  the  numerous  persons 
credited  with  the  authorship  of  the  famous  "  Letters 
of  Junius,"  and  the  way  in  which  this  came  to  pass  is 
worthy  of  notice  for  the  further  illustration  it  affords 
of  his  character.  In  a  letter  dated  at  Dover,  Feb 
ruary  i,  1803,  published  in  the  Wilmington  Mirror 
and  copied  into  the  St.  James  Chronicle,  London, 
Mr.  Thomas  Rodney  gave  the  substance  of  a  conversa 
tion  between  himself  and  General  Lee  in  1773.  That 

1  id.  283. 


96  CHARLES   LEE 

was  the  year  when  Lee  came  to  America  and  travelled 
up  and  down  the  country  in  order  to  impress  upon 
the  minds  of  our  people  his  great  importance  in  the 
European  world.  In  the  course  of  this  conversation 
Lee  observed  that  not  a  man  in  the  world  but  himself, 
not  even  the  publisher,  knew  the  secret  of  the  author 
ship  of  "  Junius."  Rodney  naturally  replied  that  no 
one  but  the  author  himself  could  make  such  a  remark 
as  that.  Lee  started.  "  I  have  unguardedly  committed 
myself,"  said  he,  "and  it  would  be  folly  to  deny  you 
that  I  am  the  author ;  but  I  must  request  you  will  not 
reveal  it  during  my  life,  for  it  never  was  and  never  will 
be  revealed  by  me  to  any  other."  Lee  then  went  on 
to  point  out  several  circumstances  corroborative  of  his 
claim.  Such  a  statement,  from  a  gentleman  of  such 
high  character  as  Mr.  Rodney,  at  once  attracted  atten 
tion  in  Europe  and  America.  Two  intimate  friends 
of  Lee  maintained  opposite  sides  of  the  question. 
Ralph  Wormeley  of  Virginia  published  a  letter  in 
which  he  argued  that  Lee  was  very  far  from  possessing 
the  knowledge  of  parliamentary  history  exhibited  in 
the  pages  of  "Junius."  Daniel  McCarthy  of  North 
Carolina  published  a  series  of  articles  in  the  Virginia 
Gazette  in  refutation  of  Wormeley.  Dr.  Thomas 
Girdlestone  of  Yarmouth,  England,  followed  on  the 
same  side  in  a  small  volume  entitled,  "  Facts  tending 
to  prove  that  General  Lee  was  never  absent  from  this 
country  for  any  length  of  time  during  the  years  1767- 
1772,  and  that  he  was  the  author  of  '  Junius.'"  This 
curious  little  book  was  published  in  London  in  1813. 
The  first  part  of  Dr.  Girdlestone's  title  points  to  the 
fatal  obstacle  to  his  hypothesis.  The  simple  fact  is 
that  Lee  was  absent  in  such  remote  countries  as 


THE   SOLDIER  OF   FORTUNE  97 

Poland  and  Turkey  at  the  very  dates  when  "  Junius  " 
was  publishing  letters  exhibiting  such  minute  and 
detailed  acquaintance  with  affairs  every  day  occurring 
in  London  as  could  only  have  been  possessed  by  an 
eye-witness  living  on  the  spot.  This  fact  makes  it 
impossible  that  he  should  have  written  the  "  Letters 
of  Junius  " ;  and  Mr.  Rodney's  statement  only  goes  to 
show  that,  in  other  than  military  matters,  the  soldier 
of  fortune  was  willing  to  claim  what  did  not  belong  to 
him. 

Such  was  the  man  to  whom  some  of  our  great 
grandfathers  were  at  times  almost  ready  to  intrust  the 
destinies  of  their  country  rather  than  to  George 
Washington !  When  we  consider  how  narrowly  the 
cause  of  American  independence  escaped  total 
wreck  at  the  hands  of  this  unprincipled  adventurer, 
the  thought  is  enough  to  make  us  shudder  after 
the  hundred  years  that  have  passed.  In  judging  the 
character  of  the  man,  there  may  be  found  some  who 
would  urge  that  his  eccentricities  were  so  marked  as 
perhaps  to  afford  some  ground  for  the  plea  of  insanity 
whereby  to  palliate  his  misdemeanours.  One  will  not 
grudge  him  the  benefit  of  such  a  plea,  in  so  far  as  it 
may  have  any  value.  His  mind  was  no  doubt  ill 
balanced,  or,  to  use  one  of  his  own  favourite  words,  it 
was  "  unhinged  "  by  colossal  vanity  and  ravening  self 
ishness  ;  and  accordingly,  what  chiefly  strikes  us  now 
in  reviewing  his  career  is  the  contrast  between  his 
enormous  pretensions  and  his  unparalleled  feebleness. 
We  shall  have  to  search  the  field  of  modern  history 
far  and  wide  to  find  his  equal  as  a  charlatan.  In 
comparison  with  such  a  man  even  the  figure  of 
Benedict  Arnold  acquires  dignity.  We  can  imagine 


98  CHARLES   LEE 

• 

the  latter  admired  and  trusted  in  some  circles  of  the 
lower  world.  But  Charles  Lee  belongs  rather  to  that 
limbo  described  by  Dante  as  the  final  home  of  those 
caitiff  souls  a  Dio  spiacenti  ed  ai  nemici  sui,  too 
wicked  for  the  one  place,  too  weak  for  the  other. 


Ill 

ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 
AND   THE   FEDERALIST   PARTY 


Ill 

ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

AND  THE  FEDERALIST   PARTY 

THE  6th  of  July,  1774,  was  a  memorable  day  in  the 
history  of  New  York.  The  question  as  to  how  far 
that  colony  would  go  in  support  of  Massachusetts  in 
its  defiance  of  Parliament  was  pressing  for  an  answer. 
Parliament  had  in  April  passed  an  act  which  deprived 
Massachusetts  of  her  charter,  and  another  which  shut 
up  the  port  of  Boston  until  the  town  should  see  fit  to 
pay  the  East  India  Company  for  the  tea  which  had 
been  thrown  into  the  harbour.  On  the  ist  of  June 
Hutchinson  had  sailed  for  England,  hoping  through 
a  personal  interview  with  the  king  to  effect  a  repeal 
of  these  tyrannical  acts,  and  on  the  same  day  Thomas 
Gage,  intrusted  with  the  work  of  enforcing  them,  as 
sumed  military  command  over  Massachusetts.  Troops 
were  encamped  on  Boston  Common,  frigates  rode  at 
anchor  in  the  harbour,  great  merchantmen  lay  idle  at 
the  wharves  while  sailors  and  shipwrights  roamed  the 
streets  or  sat  drinking  in  the  taverns.  The  legislature 
was  convened  at  Salem,  where  on  the  I7th  Samuel 
Adams  achieved  a  master  stroke  and  carried  the  reso 
lutions  inviting  all  the  sister  colonies  to  join  in  a  Con 
tinental  Congress,  to  meet  at  Philadelphia  on  the  ist 
of  September.  Rhode  Island  and  Maryland  had  at 
once  elected  delegates  to  attend  the  proposed  Con 
gress.  In  Virginia  a  convention  was  about  to  be 


101 


102  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

held,  and  such  expressions  of  opinion  had  come  from 
that  quarter  as  to  leave  no  doubt  as  to  what  its  action 
would  be.  The  time  had  arrived  when  New  York 
must  do  something.  But  what  she  should  do  was 
hard  to  determine,  for  parties  were  quite  evenly 
balanced. 

The  king,  indeed,  in  his  harsh  measures  against 
Massachusetts  relied  confidently  upon  the  support  of 
New  York.  He  believed  that  his  Tory  friends  there 
were  in  a  decided  majority,  and  they  declared  there 
would  be  no  Congress.  As  for  New  York,  they  said, 
"  She  will  never  appoint  delegates ;  Massachusetts 
must  be  made  to  feel  that  she  is  deserted."  There 
was  something  more  in  this  than  the  old  local  dislike 
between  New  York  and  New  England.  For  thirteen 
years  Massachusetts  had  been  suffering  acute  irrita 
tion  at  the  hands  of  crown  officers,  and  her  temper 
had  thus  grown  so  belligerent  that  in  most  parts  of 
the  country  there  was  a  disposition  to  regard  her  as 
perhaps  a  little  too  obstinate  and  fierce.  There  were 
people  in  New  York  who  thought  that  both  Massa 
chusetts  and  the  king  were  going  too  far,  and  per 
suaded  themselves  that  the  tea  might  be  paid  for 
without  surrendering  the  principles  which  had  led  to 
its  destruction.  Some  who  were  about  to  become 
eminent  as  Revolutionary  leaders  had  not  yet  fully 
made  up  their  minds.  Tory  politicians  led  in  the 
Committee  of  Correspondence,  and  on  the  4th  of  July, 
while  it  was  decided  to  take  part  in  the  Congress,  on 
the  other  hand  the  delegation  which  was  appointed 
seemed  to  the  extreme  Whigs  too  conservative  in 
character.  The  Sons  of  Liberty,  who  feared  that 
Massachusetts  would  not  find  due  support  in  the  Con- 


AND   THE   FEDERALIST   PARTY  103 

gress,  were  well  represented  in  the  city  of  New  York. 
At  their  head  were  the  merchants,  Isaac  Sears  and 
Alexander  Macdougall,  and  the  eloquent  lawyer,  John 
Morin  Scott.  The  Tories  used  to  sneer  at  these  men 
as  "the  Presbyterian  junto."  They  wished  to  recon 
sider  the  action  of  the  committee,  and  to  make  a 
popular  demonstration  which  would  go  as  far  as  pos 
sible  toward  committing  New  York  to  espouse  the 
cause  of  Massachusetts.  Accordingly,  on  the  6th  of 
July,  a  great  meeting  of  citizens  was  held  in  the  fields 
north  of  the  city,  with  the  canny  Scotchman,  Macdou 
gall,  as  chairman.  Many  eminent  speakers  addressed 
the  meeting,  but  among  the  hearers  was  a  lad  of 
seventeen  years,  small  and  slight  in  stature,  who  lis 
tened  with  intense  eagerness  as  he  felt  that,  besides  all 
that  was  said,  there  were  other  weighty  arguments 
which  seemed  to  occur  to  nobody.  At  length,  unable 
to  keep  silence  any  longer,  he  rose  to  his  feet,  and 
somewhat  timidly  at  first,  but  gathering  courage  every 
moment,  he  addressed  the  astonished  company.  His 
arguments  compelled  assent,  while  his  dignified  elo 
quence  won  admiration,  and  when  he  had  finished 
there  was  a  buzz  of  inquiry  as  to  who  this  extraordi 
nary  boy  could  be.  There  were  some  who  had  seen 
him  walking  back  and  forth  under  the  shade  of  some 
large  trees  in  Dey  Street,  absorbed  in  meditation  and 
now  and  then  muttering  to  himself;  a  few  knew  him 
as  "  the  young  West  Indian  " ;  on  further  inquiry,  it 
appeared  that  he  was  a  student  at  King's  College,  and 
his  name  was  Alexander  Hamilton. 

Instances  of  marvellous  precocity  are  more  often 
found  in  mathematics,  or  linguistics,  or  music,  than  in 
political  science ;  for  in  the  latter  case  something 


104  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

more  than  consecutive  thinking  or  tenacious  memory 
or  a  fine  artistic  sense  are  required ;  there  is  needed 
an  insight  into  human  nature  and  the  conditions  of 
human  life  such  as  can  hardly  be  acquired  save  by 
long  years  of  experience.  Seldom  has  there  been 
such  a  case  as  that  of  Hamilton.  His  intellect 
seemed  to  have  sprung  forth  in  full  maturity,  like 
Pallas  from  the  brain  of  Zeus.  What  little  is  known 
of  his  childhood  and  youth  can  be  told  in  few  words. 
Alexander  Hamilton  was  born  upon  the  island  of 
Nevis,  in  the  West  Indies,  on  the  nth  of  January, 
1757.  His  father  belonged  to  the  famous  Scottish 
family  of  the  Hamiltons  of  Grange,  his  mother  was 
daughter  of  a  Huguenot  gentleman  named  Fawcette, 
who  had  fled  to  the  West  Indies  after  the  revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  He  was  equally  at  home  in 
the  English  and  French  languages.  His  father  fell 
into  financial  difficulties,  and  his  mother  died  during 
his  childhood,  so  that  he  was  placed  at  school  at  Santa 
Cruz  under  the  care  of  some  of  her  relatives.  His 
school  studies  were  accompanied  by  a  wide  course  of 
miscellaneous  reading,  assisted  by  the  advice  of  Dr. 
Hugh  Knox,  a  kindly  and  sagacious  Presbyterian 
minister  and  a  graduate  of  Princeton.  Before  his 
thirteenth  birthday  he  entered  the  counting-house  of 
Nicholas  Cruger,  a  merchant,  who  carried  on  a  very 
considerable  business.  Here  his  wonderful  precocity 
soon  showed  itself.  Business  letters  of  his,  written  at 
that  period,  have  been  preserved  which  would  do 
credit  to  a  trained  business  man ;  and  before  the  boy 
had  been  a  year  in  the  house,  his  employer,  having 
occasion  to  leave  the  island,  intrusted  its  entire  man 
agement  to  him.  In  spite  of  this  extraordinary  apti- 


AND   THE   FEDERALIST   PARTY  105 

tude,  for  the  work  he  felt  no  special  fondness.  In  a 
letter  dated  just  two  months  before  he  was  thirteen, 
he  thus  unbosomed  himself  to  a  schoolmate:  "To 
confess  my  weakness,  Ned,  my  ambition  is  prevalent, 
so  that  I  contemn  the  grovelling  ambition  of  a  clerk, 
or  the  like,  to  which  m'y  fortune  condemns  me,  and 
would  willingly  risk  my  life,  though  not  my  character, 
to  exalt  my  station.  I  am  confident,  Ned,  that  my 
youth  excludes  me  from  any  hope  of  immediate  pre 
ferment,  nor  do  I  desire  it ;  but  I  mean  to  prepare  the 
way  for  futurity.  I'm  no  philosopher,  you  see,  and 
may  be  justly  said  to  build  castles  in  the  air;  my 
folly  makes  me  ashamed,  and  beg  you'll  conceal  it. 
Yet,  Neddy,  we  have  seen  such  schemes  successful, 
when  the  projector  is  constant.  I  shall  conclude  by 
saying,  I  wish  there  was  a  war." 

The  reading  of  Plutarch  has  awakened  generous 
ambition  in  many  a  youthful  mind.  Hamilton  "pre 
pared  the  way  for  futurity "  by  studying  and  com 
menting  upon  this  author,  and  by  trying  his  hand 
at  literary  composition.  In  August,  1772,  the  island 
was  visited  by  a  terrible  hurricane ;  and  a  remarkable 
description  of  it,  published  in  a  newspaper  at  St. 
Christopher,  attracted  general  attention  throughout 
the  British  West  Indies.  The  authorship  was  traced 
to  Hamilton ;  it  was  decided  that  such  literary  talent 
required  wider  opportunities  than  were  furnished  on 
the  islands;  the  needful  funds  were  raised  by  sub 
scription  ;  and  before  the  end  of  October  the  boy's 
romantic  temperament  was  at  once  gratified  and 
stimulated,  as  he  found  himself  on  board  ship  headed 
for  Boston,  with  potent  letters  of  introduction  from 
Dr.  Knox  in  his  pocket.  The  connection  with  this 


106  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

Presbyterian  divine  led  him  to  New  Jersey,  where 
he  entered  a  grammar  school  at  Elizabethtown,  and 
for  a  while  made  his  home  in  the  house  of  William 
Livingston.  There  he  was  introduced  to  the  best 
society,  and  met  many  good  friends,  among  them 
John  Jay,  who  was  soon  to  marry  one  of  the  four 
charming  daughters.  A  full  year  had  not  passed 
when  he  was  declared  fit  to  enter  Princeton,  and  he 
called  upon  Dr.  Witherspoon,  the  able  president, 
with  the  request  that  he  might  be  allowed  to  ad 
vance  toward  his  degree  as  fast  as  he  could  pass 
the  examinations,  and  without  regard  to  the  pre 
scribed  curriculum.  When  the  request  was  refused 
by  the  trustees  as  vain  and  unreasonable,  he  re 
paired  to  New  York,  and  succeeded  in  entering 
King's  College  (now  Columbia)  upon  his  own 
terms. 

This  was  late  in  the  autumn  of  1773,  the  stirring 
season  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party.  Hamilton's  wish 
for  a  war  was  soon  to  be  gratified.  His  childhood 
had  been  passed  in  an  atmosphere  of  loyalism;  he 
knew  little  as  yet  of  American  politics ;  his  instincts 
were  then,  as  always,  in  favour  of  strong  government, 
and  opposed  to  anything  that  looked  like  insurrec 
tion,  and  his  first  impressions  leaned  toward  the  Tory 
side.  But  he  had  hardly  been  six  months  at  college 
when  he  happened  to  visit  Boston,  about  the  time 
when  news  arrived  of  the  vindictive  acts  of  Parlia 
ment  and  the  appointment  of  a  military  governor. 
It  was  a  good  place  and  a  good  time  for  comprehend 
ing  the  true  character  of  the  political  situation.  The 
young  man  mastered  the  arguments  with  his  usual 
swiftness  and  thoroughness,  and  returned  to  New 


AND   THE   FEDERALIST   PARTY  107 

York  in  time  to  exert  a  powerful  influence  upon  the 
great  assemblage  in  the  fields.  The  practical  result 
of  the  meeting  was  seen  a  few  weeks  later,  when  the 
delegates  embarked  at  Cortlandt  Street  to  the  sound 
of  drum  and  trumpet,  pledged  to  "  support  at  the  risk 
of  everything  dear"  such  resolutions  as  the  Conti 
nental  Congress  might  see  fit  to  adopt. 

Soon  after  the  Congress  had  adjourned  in  October, 
to  await  the  results  of  its  action  upon  the  British  gov 
ernment,  its  proceedings  were  adversely  criticised  in 
two  able  pamphlets  written  jointly  by  two  Episcopal 
clergymen,  the  famous  Samuel  Seabury,  afterward 
Bishop  of  Connecticut,  and  Isaac  Wilkins  of  West- 
chester  County.  The  pamphlets,  which  purported  to 
come  from  "  A  Westchester  Farmer,"  cast  dismay  into 
the  ranks  of  the  Whigs.  They  were  extremely  plau 
sible,  and  were  already  making  converts,  when  within 
a  fortnight  there  appeared  an  anonymous  tract  in 
vindication  of  Congress,  which  at  once  threw  the 
"  Farmer  "  upon  the  defensive,  and  ruffled  his  temper 
withal,  as  his  next  pamphlet  showed.  The  anony 
mous  writer  returned  to  the  charge  with  a  voluminous 
essay  quite  properly  entitled  "  The  Farmer  Refuted  " ; 
it  completely  unhorsed  and  disarmed  the  adversary; 
the  two  ministers  had  no  more  to  say.  Great  curios 
ity  was  felt  as  to  the  anonymous  writer.  Some  thought 
it  must  be  Jay,  others  his  father-in-law,  Livingston. 
When  it  was  at  length  ascertained  that  it  was  a  boy 
of  eighteen,  and  the  same  boy  that  had  addressed  the 
meetings  in  the  fields,  the  astonishment  was  profound. 
There  was  no  trace  of  immaturity  in  thought  or  ex 
pression  in  his  two  essays,  and  their  boldness  of  tone 
was  accompanied  by  a  grasp  of  the  political  situation 


108  ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

that  must  seem  even  more  remarkable  to-day  than  it 
did  at  the  time,  since  we  can  appreciate  the  writer's 
foresight  as  contemporaries  necessarily  could  not.  At 
the  beginning  of  1775  very  few  leaders,  even  in  Mas 
sachusetts  or  Virginia,  were  in  favour  of  independence. 
The  author  of  "  The  Farmer  Refuted  "  hints  at  inde 
pendence  as  the  possible  outcome  of  the  quarrel,  indi 
cates  a  Fabian  military  policy  as  most  likely  to  baffle 
Great  Britain,  and  surmises  that  France  and  even 
Spain  might  find  it  for  their  interest  to  take  part  in 
the  struggle.  That  such  advanced  views  could  have 
been  even  suggested  without  weakening  the  effect  of 
the  pamphlet  shows  a  tact  and  an  artfulness  of  state 
ment  not  less  remarkable  than  the  other  qualities  of 
the  young  writer. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  news  of  Lexington 
wrought  the  excitement  in  New  York  to  fever  heat. 
There  were  street  fights  between  Tories  and  Whigs, 
and  here  Hamilton's  hatred  of  anarchy  was  well  illus 
trated.  To  him  independence  was  one  thing,  mob 
law  quite  another.  A  party  of  rioters  beset  the  house 
of  Dr.  Cooper,  the  Tory  president  of  the  college,  with 
intent  to  seize  him  and  in  some  way  maltreat  him. 
Hamilton  got  into  the  foremost  rank  of  the  crowd  till 
he  reached  the  door-step,  then  faced  about  and  ad 
dressed  the  rioters,  and  held  them  at  bay  while  the 
doctor  escaped  through  the  back  garden  and  took 
refuge  on  the  deck  of  a  British  seventy-four.  Pres 
ently,  when  Isaac  Sears  raised  a  troop  of  horse  over  in 
Connecticut  and  dashed  into  New  York  at  their  head 
to  attack  Rivington's  Tory  printing-press,  Hamilton 
incurred  no  little  risk  in  confronting  them  with  argu 
ments  and  expostulations.  The  press  was  destroyed 


AND   THE   FEDERALIST   PARTY  109 

and  the  Tory  type  carried  off  to  Connecticut  to  be 
melted  into  Whig  bullets.1 

By  this  time  the  boy  was  ranked  among  the  leading 
spirits  of  the  Whig  party.  He  had  already  begun  to 
study  the  military  art,  and  now  joined  a  corps  of  young 
men,  chiefly  college  students,  known  as  "  Hearts  of 
Oak."  They  wore  green  coats  and  leather  caps 
adorned  with  the  motto,  "  Freedom  or  Death,"  and 
they  were  drilled  and  paraded  daily  until  they  became 
a  model  of  discipline.  On  the  i4th  of  March,  1776, 
Hamilton  was  appointed  captain  of  the  first  company 
of  artillery  raised  by  the  state.  Presently  the  thorough 
ness  of  its  drill  and  the  grace  of  its  movements  caught 
the  keen  eye  of  that  great  genius  and  eager  military 
student,  Nathanael  Greene,  who  arrived  in  New  York 
on  the  1 7th  of  April.  Greene  was  so  impressed  that 
he  sought  Hamilton's  acquaintance  and  spoke  of  him 
enthusiastically  to  Washington.  The  young  captain 
and  his  company  did  good  service  at  the  battle  of 
Long  Island  and  the  retreat  which  followed ;  and 
again  at  White  Plains  and  Trenton  and  Princeton. 
On  the  ist  of  March,  1777,  he  accepted  a  position  on 
Washington's  staff,  with  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel. 
It  was  with  some  reluctance  that  he  took  this  place, 
for  he  had  been  looking  forward  to  promotion  in  the 
line  ;  but  what  he  lost  in  one  direction  he  probably 
more  than  gained  in  another,  through  the  peculiarly 
intimate  relations  into  which  he  entered  with  Wash 
ington.  His  great  work  was  to  be,  not  that  of  a 
general,  but  of  a  statesman ;  and  there  was  no  place 
more  favourable  than  Washington's  staff  for  studying 
minutely  into  the  causes  of  the  miserable  weakness 

1  Morse's  "Hamilton,"  I.  19. 


110  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

which  the  imperfect  union  between  the  states  entailed 
upon  the  whole  country,  or  for  discussing  the  most 
proper  measures  for  remedying  this  condition  of  affairs 
through  the  establishment  of  a  more  perfect  union. 
The  impossibility  of  raising  a  national  revenue,  save 
from  precarious  foreign  loans  or  the  wretched  expedi 
ent  of  issuing  promissory  notes  without  any  discover 
able  means  of  paying  them,  was  a  source  of  perpetual 
anxiety  to  the  commander-in-chief.  The  consequences 
of  this  poverty  were  daily  brought  home  to  his  head 
quarters  in  the  difficulty  of  enlisting  troops,  or  of  sup 
plying  them  with  clothing  and  ammunition,  or  of 
paying  them  even  a  small  instalment  of  wages  over 
due.  At  the  end  of  the  war  there  was  no  one  who 
could  have  told  better  than  Hamilton  how  hard  it  had 
sometimes  proved  to  keep  the  army  from  melting  away, 
or  how  many  times  some  promising  military  scheme 
had  been  nipped  in  the  bud  for  want  of  supplies,  while 
men  in  Congress  and  in  the  state  legislatures  were 
wondering  why  Washington  could  not  march  without 
shoes,  sup  without  food,  fight  without  powder,  and 
defeat  a  well-equipped  and  well-fed  enemy  that  out 
numbered  him  two  to  one.  No  one  understood  better 
than  Hamilton  that,  but  for  the  radical  want  of 
efficiency  in  the  government  of  the  confederation, 
such  obstacles  would  have  been  far  less  formidable, 
and  the  enemy  might  much  sooner  have  been  driven 
from  the  country.  No  doubt  the  daily  intercourse  for 
four  years  between  Washington  and  his  confidential 
aide  added  much  to  the  strength  of  both,  and  to  the 
effectiveness  with  which  they  were  afterward  able  to 
reenforce  one  another  in  contributing  to  found  a  better 
government.  Almost  from  the  outset  Washington 


AND   THE   FEDERALIST   PARTY  III 

consulted  Hamilton  more  frequently  than  the  other 
members  of  his  staff  and  intrusted  the  most  weighty 
affairs  to  his  charge.  It  was  remarkable  that  this 
preference,  accorded  to  so  young  a  man,  should  have 
excited  no  jealousy.  But  the  "  little  lion,"  as  the  older 
officers  called  him,  was  so  frank  and  good-natured,  so 
buoyant  and  brave,  and  so  free  from  arrogance,  that  he 
won  all  the  hearts.  There  was  a  mixture  in  him  of 
Scottish  shrewdness  with  French  vivacity  that  most 
people  found  irresistible.  Knox  and  Laurens,  Lafay 
ette  and  Steuben,  loved  him  with  devoted  affection. 

Along  with  the  desire  to  please,  which  was  one 
secret  of  his  attractiveness,  there  was  a  due  amount 
of  sternness  latent,  as  appeared  when  occasion  called 
for  it.  If  necessary,  the  "  little  lion "  could  com 
mand  in  a  tone  that  made  weaker  creatures  tremble. 
All  his  tact  and  all  his  imperiousness  were  required 
on  his  mission  to  Saratoga  after  Burgoyne's  sur 
render,  to  get  back  the  troops  which  Washington 
had  sent  to  Gates  and  which  the  latter  no  longer 
needed.  Gates  was  more  than  ready  to  leave  Wash 
ington  in  the  lurch,  as  Charles  Lee  had  done  the  year 
before.  In  Congress  there  was  so  strong  a  party 
opposed  to  Washington  that  to  offend  his  unscrupu 
lous  rival  while  all  the  glamour  of  victory  surrounded 
him  would  not  be  timely.  The  skill  with  which  this 
young  man,  not  yet  one-and-twenty,  wrested  the  troops 
from  the  reluctant  Gates,  peremptorily  asserting  Wash 
ington's  claim,  yet  never  allowing  the  affair  to  develop 
into  a  quarrel,  was  simply  marvellous. 

As  a  staff  officer  Hamilton  was  present  at  the  bat 
tles  of  the  Brandywine,  Germantown,  and  Monmouth  ; 
he  was  Colonel  Laurens's  second  in  the  duel  between 


112  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

that  officer  and  Charles  Lee ;  and  at  West  Point  he 
was  the  first  to  receive  and  read  the  papers  taken  from 
Andre's  stockings  and  containing  the  melancholy  proofs 
of  Arnold's  treason.  He  saw  much  of  Andre  and  of 
Mrs.  Arnold,  and  his  letters  give  a  most  touching 
description  of  the  affair.  Soon  after  this  his  connec 
tion  with  Washington's  staff  came  abruptly  to  an  end. 
On  the  1 6th  of  February,  1781,  as  Washington  was 
going  up  the  stairs  at  his  headquarters  at  New  Wind 
sor,  he  met  Hamilton  coming  down  and  told  him  that 
he  wished  to  speak  to  him.  Hamilton,  who  was  on  his 
way  downstairs  to  deliver  an  important  order,  replied 
that  he  would  return  in  a  moment.  On  his  way  back 
he  was  met  by  Lafayette,  who  accosted  him  on  some 
pressing  matter  of  business.  In  his  impatience  to 
return  upstairs  he  cut  Lafayette  short  in  a  manner 
which,  as  he  says,  but  for  their  intimacy  would  have 
been  more  than  abrupt.  He  was  not  aware  of  having 
consumed  more  than  two  minutes  altogether,  but 
when  he  reached  the  head  of  the  staircase  he  found 
Washington  waiting  there,  and  these  words  were 
exchanged :  — 

"  Colonel  Hamilton,  you  have  kept  me  waiting  at 
the  head  of  the  stairs  these  ten  minutes.  I  must  tell 
you,  sir,  you  treat  me  with  disrespect." 

"  I  am  not  conscious  of  it,  sir ;  but  since  you  have 
thought  it  necessary  to  tell  me  so,  we  part." 

"Very  well,  sir,  if  it  be  your  choice." 

And  so  they  parted.  At  first  sight  the  breaking  of 
such  an  important  relation  on  such  a  slight  occasion 
seems  silly,  and  Hamilton's  reply  to  his  commander 
childishly  petulant.  But  Washington's  temper  was 
hasty.'  That  he  believed  himself  to  have  reproved  his 


AND   THE    FEDERALIST   PARTY  113 

young  friend  unjustly  was  shown  by  his  sending  an 
aide  to  him  a  few  moments  afterward,  with  what  was 
virtually  an  apology  and  a  request  that  he  would 
reconsider  his  decision.  Hamilton,  however,  had  for 
some  time  wished  to  leave  the  staff  for  a  place  in  the 
line,  and  now  that  the  matter  had  taken  this  shape 
he  preferred  to'  let  it  remain  so.  Any  resentment  he 
expressly  disclaimed,  and  it  does  not  appear  that  the 
cordial  friendship  between  the  two  men  was  in  the 
least  disturbed  by  this  little  episode.  Hamilton  pres 
ently  obtained  the  opportunity  which  he  coveted,  and 
in  the  Yorktown  campaign  commanded  a  body  of 
light  infantry  in  Lafayette's  division,  at  the  head  of 
which  he  stormed  one  of  the  British  redoubts  with 
signal  valour.  This  was  the  end  of  his  military  career. 
On  his  mission  to  General  Gates  he  had  become  ac 
quainted  with  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  General  Schuy- 
ler,  and  their  marriage  took  place  on  the  i4th  of 
December,  1780.  In  the  spring  of  1782,  as  soon  as 
it  became  evident  that  the  war  was  over,  Hamilton 
removed  to  Albany,  and  in  July  was  admitted  to  the 
bar. 

Other  business  than  law  practice,  however,  came  up 
to  occupy  his  attention.  We  have  seen  how  forcibly 
the  weakness  of  the  government  and  the  need  for 
revenue  had  been  brought  home  to  Washington's  staff 
officer.  He  had  pondered  deeply  on  these  subjects, 
and  had  already  conceived  the  scheme  of  an  alliance 
of  interests  between  the  federal  government  and  the 
moneyed  class  of  society.  One  of  the  instruments  by 
which  the  alliance  was  to  be  effected  was  a  national 
bank,  which  was  to  be  a  corporation  in  private  hands, 
but  to  some  extent  supported  and  controlled  by  Con- 


114  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

gress.  He  also  advocated  extending  the  powers  of 
the  federal  government  and  placing  the  departments 
of  war  and  finance  in  the  hands  of  individuals  instead 
of  committees.  His  views  made  a  great  impression 
upon  Robert  Morris,  who  was  appointed  in  1781 
superintendent  of  finance.  In  December  of  that  year 
the  Bank  of  North  America  was  established,  and 
Hamilton  must  share  with  Robert  and  Gouverneur 
Morris  the  authorship  of  that  scheme.  About  the 
time  he  entered  the  bar  he  was  appointed  continental 
receiver  of  taxes  for  the  state  of  New  York.  In  that 
capacity  he  visited  the  legislature  at  Poughkeepsie, 
had  an  earnest  conference  with  a  committee  of  both 
houses,  and  presently  the  legislature  actually  passed 
resolutions  calling  for  a  convention  of  all  the  states 
for  the  purpose  of  enlarging  the  powers  of  Congress, 
especially  with  regard  to  taxation.  Nothing  ever 
came  of  this  action,  but  in  view  of  the  subsequent 
course  of  New  York,  it  is  remarkable  that  Hamilton's 
first  attempt  should  have  succeeded  so  well.  But 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  between  1782  and  1788 
the  politics  of  New  York  wrere  somewhat  corrupted  by 
her  custom-house.  In  the  general  confusion  she  found 
herself  prospering  at  the  expense  of  her  neighbours, 
and  the  strength  of  the  Anti-federalist  or  Clintonian 
party  was  naturally  increased  by  that  circumstance; 
it  would  have  been  so  in  any  state. 

In  October,  1782,  the  New  York  legislature  chose 
Hamilton  as  one  of  its  delegates  to  Congress.  There 
he  first  came  into  familiar  contact  with  Madison,  and 
met  James  Wilson,  with  others  of  less  note ;  and  there 
he  witnessed  some  months  of  barren  and  almost 
purposeless  wrangling  which  convinced  him  that 


AND   THE   FEDERALIST   PARTY  115 

nothing  was  to  be  hoped  from  any  attempt  at  reform 
which  should  stop  short  with  the  mere  amending  of 
the  confederation ;  it  must  be  entirely  superseded  by 
a  stronger  government.  On  every  proposal  which 
looked  toward  amendment  he  took  the  affirmative  and 
argued  with  his  accustomed  power  that  nothing  was 
accomplished.  This  winter's  experience  doubtless  in 
creased  his  disgust  at  the  jealousies  and  the  perpetual 
jarring  between  the  states.  Hamilton's  own  position 
was  peculiar  in  so  far  as  he  was  not  a  native  of  any  one 
of  the  states,  and  had  from  his  first  connection  with 
public  affairs  felt  more  interest  in  the  country  as  a 
whole  than  in  any  part  of  it.  His  attitude,  therefore, 
was  such  as  to  enable  him  to  move  much  more  freely 
and  directly  toward  the  construction  of  a  national 
government  than  any  of  his  contemporaries.  Another 
effect  of  so  much  fruitless  discussion  may  well  have 
been  to  confirm  his  distrust  of  popular  government. 
For  what  an  Athenian  would  have  called  the  rule  of 
the  many-headed  King  Demos  he  never  had  much 
liking.  He  could  see  much  more  clearly  than  the 
men  around  him  many  of  the  things  that  were  needed 
and  the  most  efficient  means  for  obtaining  them ;  and 
there  was  in  his  temperament  an  impatience  and  an 
imperiousness  that  made  him  irk  at  the  dulness  of  his 
fellow-creatures  and  the  length  of  time  required  to  set 
their  common  sense  to  work  in  the  right  direction. 
He  was  a  devoted  friend  to  free  government ;  not, 
however,  to  that  kind  of  free  government  in  which  the 
people  rule,  but  the  kind  in  which  they  are  ruled  by 
an  upper  class,  with  elaborate  safeguards  against  the 
abuse  of  power.  To  such  views  Hamilton  was  pre 
disposed  by  nature ;  his  intimate  experience  of  the 


Il6  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

contrast  between  Washington's  efficiency  and  the  in 
efficiency  of  Congress  had  done  .much  to  confirm 
them ;  his  own  winter  of  hard  work  in  Congress  no 
doubt  confirmed  them  still  more.  Every  man  has  the 
defects  of  his  excellences,  and  this  element  of  narrow 
ness  in  Hamilton's  view  of  popular  government  was 
closely  related  to  the  qualities  that  made  him  so  pre 
eminent  as  a  constructive  thinker. 

One  winter  of  such  hopeless  work  was  for  the 
present  enough  for  Hamilton.  In  1783  he  returned 
to  the  practice  of  law  and  began  rising  rapidly  at  the 
bar.  Even  in  his  professional  practice  he  had  an 
opportunity  to  figure  as  a  defender  of  the  federal 
government  against  the  state  sovereignty.  Just  as  it 
was  in  later  years  with  Daniel  Webster,  his  first 
famous  law  case  stood  in  a  noticeable  relation  to  his 
career  as  a  statesman.  Hamilton  was  honourably  dis 
tinguished  for  his  vigorous  condemnation  of  the  cruel 
and  silly  persecution  to  which  the  Tories,  especially 
in  New  York,  were  subjected  after  the  close  of  the 
war.  His  first  great  case,  in  1784,  was  one  in  which 
the  treaty  obligations  of  the  United  States  to  protect 
the  Tories  from  further  abuse  came  into  conflict  with 
a  persecuting  act  which  the  New  York  legislature  had 
lately  passed  against  such  people.  There  was  then 
no  federal  Supreme  Court,  or  any  other  federal  court, 
in  which  such  questions  could  be  settled.  The  case 
was  one  which  must  begin  and  end  in  the  state  courts 
of  New  York,  and  its  bearing  upon  the  political  ques 
tion  was  rather  implied  than  asserted.  It  was  a  case 
in  which,  if  the  state  law  were  upheld,  a  poor  widow 
would  recover  property  of  which  the  vicissitudes  of 
war  deprived  her ;  but  if  the  state  law  were  set  aside,  a 


AND   THE    FEDERALIST   PARTY  117 

mass  of  spoliation  would  be  prevented  in  comparison 
with  which  the  widow's  affair  was  the  veriest  trifle. 
Popular  sympathy  was  wholly  with  the  widow  and 
against  her  Tory  opponent,  and  in  acting  as  counsel 
for  the  latter  Hamilton  showed  such  moral  courage  as 
had  hardly  been  called  for  in  any  law  case  since  John 
Adams  and  Josiah  Quincy  defended  the  British  soldiers 
concerned  in  the  so-called  Boston  Massacre.  That  he 
should  have  won  his  case  against  a  hostile  court,  in 
such  a  moment  of  popular  excitement,  was  hardly  to 
be  expected.  That  he  did  win  it,  and  in  so  doing 
overturn  the  state  law  in  question,  was  a  marvellous 
feat,  —  the  strongest  proof  one  could  wish  of  his 
unrivalled  power  as  an  advocate.  The  decision  of  the 
court  was  followed  by  a  war  of  pamphlets  in  which 
Hamilton  again  won  the  day,  and  went  far  toward 
changing  the  public  sentiment.  At  this  moment  there 
entered  upon  his  life  the  ominous  shadow  of  the  duel, 
that  social  pest,  which  by  and  by,  under  other  circum 
stances  and  at  other  hands,  was  to  cut  him  off  in  the 
very  prime  of  his  powers  and  usefulness.  A  club  of 
blatant  pothouse  politicians  proposed  to  take  turns  in 
calling  him  out  until  some  one  of  them  should  have 
the  good  fortune  to  kill  him ;  but  the  wild  scheme 
came  to  naught. 

Two  more  years  elapsed  while  Hamilton  was  en 
gaged  in  professional  work,  and  then  Virginia,  under 
the  lead  of  Madison,  called  for  a  convention  of  all  the 
states  at  Annapolis,  to  consider  the  feasibility  of  estab 
lishing  a  uniform  system  of  commercial  regulations 
for  the  whole  country.  Here  Hamilton  saw  his  oppor 
tunity,  and  succeeded  in  getting  New  York  to  appoint 
delegates,  with  himself  among  them.  When  the  con- 


Il8  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

vention  met  in  September,  1 786,  only  five  states  were 
represented,  so  that  the  only  thing  worth  while  to  do 
was  to  try  again  and  call  another  convention.  It  was 
Hamilton  who  wrote  the  address  calling  for  a  conven 
tion  at  Philadelphia,  to  meet  in  the  following  May,  to 
consider  the  best  means  of  clothing  the  federal  gov 
ernment  with  powers  adequate  for  the  maintenance  of 
order  and  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  It  was  high 
time  for  such  work  to  be  undertaken,  for  the  whole 
country  was  falling  under  the  sway  of  the  lord  of  mis 
rule.  Congress  was  bankrupt,  foreign  nations  were 
scoffing  at  us,  Connecticut  had  barely  escaped  from  war 
with  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  from  New  Hamp 
shire,  there  were  riots  and  bloodshed  in  Vermont, 
Rhode  Island  seemed  on  the  verge  of  civil  war,  Mas 
sachusetts  was  actually  engaged  in  suppressing  armed 
rebellion,  Connecticut  and  New  Jersey  were  threat 
ening  commercial  non-intercourse  with  New  York. 
Spain  was  defying  us  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  a  party  in  Virginia  was  entertaining  the  idea  of  a 
separate  Southern  confederacy.  Under  such  circum 
stances  it  was  necessary  to  act  quickly,  and  it  was 
Hamilton's  business  to  see  that  New  York  was  repre 
sented  in  the  convention.  To  that  end  he  succeeded 
in  getting  elected  to  the  legislature,  and  spent  the  win 
ter  in  a  hard  fight  against  the  party  that  was  opposed 
to  a  clear  union  of  the  states.  That  party  was  very 
strong.  At  its  head  was  the  governor,  George  Clinton, 
who  preferred  to  remain  the  most  powerful  citizen  of 
New  York  rather  than  occupy  a  subordinate  place 
under  a  national  government  in  which  his  own  state 
was  not  foremost.  The  policy  of  local  high  tariffs 
directed  against  the  neighbouring  states  had  been 


AND   THE   FEDERALIST   PARTY  119 

temporarily  successful,  although  it  was  already  threat 
ening  New  York  with  a  war.  Though  some  of  the 
most  intelligent  people  in  the  state  understood  the 
shortsightedness  of  the  governor's  policy,  the  multitude 
were  always  ready  to  throw  up  their  caps  and  shout, 
"  Hurrah  for  Clinton  !  "  It  was  this  unieasoning  pop 
ular  support  that  made  Clinton  at  that  moment  the 
most  formidable  enemy  then  living  in  the  United 
States  to  all  schemes  and  movements  that  tended 
toward  a  closer  union.  Here  again  the  circumstances 
were  such  as  naturally  to  strengthen  Hamilton's  hatred 
of  democracy.  Here  was  democracy  confronting  him 
with  intent  to  thwart  and  prevent  the  work  to  which 
he  had  now  come  to  consecrate  his  life. 

This  was  a  hot  fight.  At  length  Hamilton,  with  the 
valuable  aid  of  Schuyler  and  the  Livingstons,  won  a 
victory,  such  as  it  was.  Delegates  were  indeed  chosen, 
so  that  New  York  was  not  unrepresented  in  the  con 
vention,  like  Rhode  Island.  Hamilton  was  one  of 
these  delegates,  so  that  he  was  to  have  a  chance  to 
express  his  views  and  make  his  influence  felt.  But 
every  effort  to  obtain  more  than  three  delegates  was 
voted  down,  and  Hamilton's  two  colleagues,  Robert 
Yates  and  John  Lansing,  were  uncompromising  Anti- 
federalists,  so  that  it  was  perfectly  certain  that  he 
would  never  succeed  in  the  convention  in  carrying  the 
vote  of  New  York  for  one  single  measure  looking 
toward  the  fulfilment  of  the  objects  for  which  that 
convention  had  been  called. 

Thus  hampered,  the  share  which  Hamilton  took  in  the 
debates  of  the  convention  was  a  small  one.  He  could 
only  express  his  individual  preferences,  well  knowing 
that  as  soon  as  it  came  to  a  vote  his  two  colleagues 


120  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

would  overrule  him.  To  have  disputed  every  point 
would  simply  have  emphasized  the  fact  that  he  did  not 
really  represent  his  own  state,  and  would  thus  have 
impaired  his  usefulness.  So  he  threw  all  his  force  into 
one  great  speech.  Early  in  the  proceedings,  after  vari 
ous  plans  of  government  had  been  laid  before  the 
convention,  he  took  the  occasion  to  present  his  own 
view  of  the  general  subject.  Only  an  outline  of  his 
speech,  which  took  five  hours  in  delivery,  has  been 
preserved.  Gouverneur  Morris  said  it  was  the  most 
impressive  speech  he  ever  heard  in  his  life.  In  the 
course  of  it  Hamilton  read  his  own  carefully  prepared 
plan,  of  which  we  need  only  notice  the  two  cardinal 
features.  First,  he  would  have  had  the  President  and 
senators  elected  by  persons  possessed  of  a  certain 
amount  of  landed  property,  and  he  would  have  had 
them  hold  office  for  life  or  during  good  behaviour.  This 
would  have  created  an  aristocratic  republic,  as  near  to 
an  elective  monarchy  with  a  life  peerage  as  one  could 
very  well  get.  Secondly,  he  would  have  aimed  a  death 
blow,  not  merely  at  state  sovereignty,  but  at  state  rights, 
by  giving  the  President  the  appointment  of  the  several 
state  governors,  who  were  to  have  a  veto  on  the  acts  of 
their  legislatures.  If  such  a  measure  as  this  had  been 
adopted,  the  Union  in  all  probability  would  not  have 
lasted  a  dozen  years.  The  position  of  a  governor  ap 
pointed  by  any  power  outside  the  state  would  have 
borne  altogether  too  much  likeness  to  the  position  of 
the  royal  governors  before  the  Revolution.  The  will 
of  the  people,  as  expressed  by  the  state  legislature, 
would  have  been  liable  at  any  moment  to  be  overruled 
by  a  governor  who,  whether  a  native  of  the  state  or  not, 
would  have  owed  his  position  to  considerations  which 


AND   THE   FEDERALIST   PARTY  121 

might  be  antagonistic  to  the  policy  of  the  state.  The 
clashing  between  imperial  and  local  interests  might 
not  have  been  so  violent  as  before  the  Revolution,  but 
there  would  have  been  so  much  to  remind  people  of 
the  old  state  of  things  that  the  new  government  would 
have  been  discredited  from  the  start. 

It  seems  clear,  then,  that  in  this  suggestion  Hamil 
ton  did  not  show  his  wonted  sagacity.  He  failed  to 
understand  what  was  really  sound  and  valuable  in 
state  rights,  and  this  was  not  at  all  strange  in  a  man 
who,  having  been  born  outside  of  the  United  States, 
was  at  this  very  moment  contending  against  the  ex 
treme  state  sovereignty  doctrines  of  New  York  and 
her  narrow-minded  governor. 

Fortunately,  however,  there  was  not  the  slightest 
chance  of  Hamilton's  extreme  views  prevailing  in  the 
convention,  and  this  he  knew  as  well  as  any  one.  His 
suggestions,  it  was  said,  were  praised  by  everybody, 
but  followed  by  no  one.  Presently  urgent  business 
called  him  home,  and  his  two  colleagues  quit  the  con 
vention  in  disgust,  so  that  New  York  was  left  without 
representation  there.  Toward  the  close  he  returned 
to  Philadelphia,  and  when  the  draft  of  the  federal 
Constitution  was  completed,  he  made  an  eloquent 
speech,  urging  all  the  delegates  to  sign  it.  No  man's 
ideas,  he  said,  could  be  more  remote  from  the  plan 
than  his  were  known  to  be ;  but  was  it  possible  for  a 
true  patriot  to  deliberate  between  anarchy  and  civil 
war,  on  the  one  side,  and  the  chance  of  good  to  be  ex 
pected  from  this  plan,  on  the  other?  This  was  the 
spirit  of  the  true  statesman,  and  in  this  spirit  he  signed 
alone  for  New  York. 

The  "  Empire  State  "  has  had  many  illustrious  citi- 


122  ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

zens,  but  to  none  does  she  owe  such  a  debt  of  gratitude 
as  to  Alexander  Hamilton  for  inscribing  her  name  on 
this  immortal  record.  In  the  desperate  struggle  which 
followed,  every  inch  of  ground  once  gained  counted 
as  a  victory ;  and  it  was  much  that  when  the  Constitu 
tion  was  first  published  to  the  world  the  name  of  New 
York  was  attached  to  it. 

In  the  ten  months  which  followed  the  close  of  the 
convention  we  see  Hamilton  at  the  most  interesting 
period  of  his  life.  Still  buoyant  with  youthful  energy, 
just  finishing  his  thirty-first  year,  his  rare  flexibility  of 
mind  was  now  most  strikingly  illustrated.  Like  a  wise 
statesman,  when  he  could  not  get  the  whole  loaf,  he 
made  the  most  that  he  could  out  of  the  half.  His 
noble,  disinterested  patriotism,  not  content  with  leading 
him  to  sign  a  constitution  of  which  he  only  half  ap 
proved,  now  urged  him  to  defend  it  with  matchless 
ability  in  the  papers  which  make  up  that  immortal 
volume,  the  "  Federalist."  The  Constitution,  as  finally 
adopted  by  the  convention,  was  very  far  from  being 
the  work  of  any  one  man,  but  Madison's  share  in  fram 
ing  it  had  been  very  great,  and  it  represented  his  theory 
of  government  much  more  nearly  than  Hamilton's. 
The  thoroughness,  however,  with  which  Hamilton 
made  the  whole  work  his  own,  is  well  illustrated  by 
the  difficulty  in  deciding  from  internal  evidence  what 
parts  of  the  "  Federalist  "  were  written  by  him  and  what 
parts  by  Madison.  In  the  controversy  which  has  been 
waged  upon  this  question,  it  has  been  shown  that  we 
can  seldom  light  upon  such  distinctive  features  of  treat 
ment  and  style  as  to  lead  to  a  sure  conclusion.  This 
shows  how  completely  the  two  writers  were  for  the 
moment  at  one,  and  it  shows  Hamilton's  marvellous 


AND  THE   FEDERALIST   PARTY  123 

adaptability.  It  also  illustrates  one  characteristic  of 
his  style.  Had  he  been  endowed  with  a  gorgeous 
poetical  imagination  like  Burke,  or  had  he  been  a 
master  of  rhetoric  in  the  same  sense  as  Webster,  there 
could  never  have  been  any  difficulty  in  distinguishing 
between  his  writing  and  Madison's.  But  Hamilton's 
style  was  a  direct  appeal  to  man's  reason ;  and  the 
wonder  of  it  was  that  he  could  accomplish  by  such  a 
direct  appeal  what  most  men  cannot  accomplish  with 
out  calling  into  play  the  various  arts  of  the  rhetorician. 
To  make  a  bare  statement  of  facts  and  conclusions  in 
such  a  way  that  unwilling  minds  cannot  choose  but 
accept  them  is  a  rare  gift  indeed.  But  while  this  was 
Hamilton's  secret,  it  was  to  some  extent  Madison's 
also.  Though  a  much  less  brilliant  man  in  many 
ways,  in  this  one  respect  Madison  approached  Hamil 
ton,  though  he  did  not  quite  equal  him.  Hence,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  the  general  similarity  of  style  through 
out  the  disputed  numbers  of  the  "  Federalist." 

As  the  speeches  in  Xenophon's  "  Anabasis  "  give  one 
a  very  brief  opinion  of  the  intelligence  of  the  Greek 
soldiers  to  whom  such  arguments  might  even  be  sup 
posed  to  be  addressed,  so  the  essays  in  the  "  Federalist " 
give  one  a  very  high  opinion  of  the  intelligence  of  our 
great-grandfathers.  The  American  people  have  never 
received  a  higher  compliment  than  in  having  had  such 
a  book  addressed  to  them.  That  they  deserved  it  was 
shown  by  the  effect  produced,  and  it  is  in  this  dem 
ocratic  appeal  to  the  general  intelligence  that  we  get 
the  pleasantest  impression  of  Hamilton's  power. 

The  most  remarkable  exhibition  of  it,  however,  was 
in  the  state  convention  at  Poughkeepsie,  in  June  and 
July,  1788,  for  considering  the  question  as  to  ratifying 


124  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

the  federal  Constitution.  Ten  of  the  thirteen  states 
had  now  ratified  it,  or  one  more  than  the  number 
necessary  for  putting  it  into  operation.  The  laggards 
were  New  York,  North  Carolina,  and  Rhode  Island. 
The  latter  state,  isolated  between  her  two  stronger 
neighbours,  might  be  left  out  of  account  for  the 
moment,  and  so  might  North  Carolina,  for  owing  to 
the  slavery  compromises  South  Carolina  had  become 
intensely  Federalist,  a  fact  of  cardinal  importance  in 
the  history  of  the  next  thirty  years.  But  as  for  New 
York,  she  could  not  for  a  moment  be  disregarded. 
Though  not  yet  one  of  the  greatest  states,  her  position 
made  her  supremely  important.  It  had  been  so  in 
the  days  of  Stuyvesant,  and  of  Frontenac,  and  of 
Montcalm,  and  of  Burgoyne;  and  just  so  it  was  in  the 
days  of  George  Clinton.  If  he  could  have  carried  his 
point,  our  federal  Union,  cut  in  twain  by  the  Mohawk 
and  Hudson  valleys,  would  have  had  but  a  short  life. 
That  he  did  not  carry  it  was  mainly  due  to  Hamilton's 
wonderful  power  of  striking  directly  home  at  the  sober 
reason  of  his  fellow-men.  It  is  not  so  very  often  that 
we  see  one  man  convince  another  by  sheer  argument. 
When  passions  and  prejudices  are  enlisted,  it  is  seldom 
that  either  side  will  budge  an  inch.  The  more  they 
argue  the  more  obstinate  they  grow,  and  if  the  affair 
gets  settled,  it  is  usually  by  some  sort  of  compromise, 
in  which  each  side  tries  to  comfort  itself  with  the 
belief  that  it  has  overreached  the  other.  In  the  New 
York  convention  of  1 788  there  was  no  chance  for  com 
promise  ;  the  question  as  to  ratifying  the  constitution 
must  be  answered  with  Yes  or  No ;  and  if  the  vote  had 
been  taken  at  the  beginning  two-thirds  of  the  members 
would  have  voted  No.  At  the  head  of  the  Anti-feder- 


AND   THE   FEDERALIST   PARTY  125 

alist  forces  was  Melanchthon  Smith,  an  extremely  able 
debater,  no  mean  antagonist  even  for  Hamilton.  He 
must  have  been  a  man  of  rare  candour,  too,  for  after 
weeks  of  debate  he  owned  himself  convinced.  The 
Clintonian  ranks  were  thus  fatally  broken,  and  the 
decisive  vote  showed  a  narrow  majority  of  three  in 
favour  of  the  Constitution.  Seldom,  indeed,  has  the 
human  tongue  won  such  a  victory.  It  was  the  Water 
loo  of  Anti-federalism.  In  the  festivities  that  followed 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  when  the  emblematic  federal 
ship  —  the  ship  of  state  —  was  drawn  through  the 
streets,  it  was  with  entire  justice  that  the  name  of 
Hamilton  was  emblazoned  upon  her  side. 

A  new  chapter  was  now  to  begin  in  Hamilton's 
career.  President  Washington,  in  endeavouring  to 
represent  in  his  cabinet  the  nation  rather  than  a  party, 
selected  Jefferson  as  his  Secretary  of  State  and  Ham 
ilton  as  his  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Nothing  but 
strife  could  come  out  of  such  relations  between  two 
such  powerful  and  antagonistic  natures.  The  dissen 
sions  between  the  two  leaders  and  the  great  division 
between  American  parties  arose  gradually  but  rapidly, 
as  Hamilton's  bold,  aggressive  financial  policy  declared 
itself.  It  was  a  time  when  bold  measures  were  needed. 
At  home  and  abroad  American  credit  was  dead,  be 
cause  the  Continental  Congress  had  no  power  to  tax 
the  people  and  therefore  could  get  no  money  to  pay 
its  debts.  Now,  under  the  new  Constitution  the  House 
of  Representatives  could  tax  the  people,  and  the 
problem  for  Hamilton  was  to  suggest  the  best  means 
of  using  this  new,  unfamiliar,  and  unpopular  power,  so 
as  to  obtain  a  steady  revenue  from  the  very  start  with 
out  arousing  too  much  hostility.  A  preliminary  part 


126  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

of  the  problem  was  to  decide  what  was  to  be  done 
with  the  mass  of  public  debt  already  incurred.  There 
were  three  kinds  of  such  debt.  First,  there  were  the 
sums  due  to  foreign  governments  for  money  lent  to 
the  United  States  for  carrying  on  the  War  of  Inde 
pendence.  Everybody  agreed  that  this  class  of  debts 
must  be  paid  to  the  uttermost  farthing.  Secondly, 
there  were  the  debts  due  to  American  citizens  who 
had  invested  their  money  in  Continental  securities. 
Hamilton's  proposal  that  these  should  be  paid  in  full, 
interest  as  well  as  principal,  met  with  some  opposition. 
In  the  chaos  which  had  hitherto  prevailed,  such 
securities  had  fallen  greatly  in  value,  and  the  first 
glimmer  of  a  better  state  of  things  showed  that  specula 
tors  had  been  buying  them  up  in  hopes  of  a  rise.  It 
was  now  argued  that,  by  redeeming  all  such  securities 
at  their  full  value,  the  government  would  be  benefiting 
the  speculators  rather  than  repaying  the  original  in 
vestors.  But  Hamilton  understood  clearly  that,  with 
nations  as  with  individuals,  credit  can  be  maintained 
only  by  paying  one's  debts  in  full,  without  asking  what 
is  going  to  become  of  the  money.  After  some  dis 
cussion  this  view  prevailed  in  Congress. 

Over  the  third  class  of  debts  there  was  a  fierce  dis 
pute.  These  were  the  debts  owed  by  the  several  state 
governments  to  private  citizens.  Much  distress  had 
ensued  from  the  inability  of  the  states  to  discharge 
these  obligations.  The  discontent  in  Massachusetts, 
which  had  culminated  in  Shays's  rebellion,  was  partly 
traceable  to  such  a  cause.  On  every  side  creditors 
were  clamorous.  Nothing  would  go  so  far  toward 
strengthening  the  new  government  as  to  allay  this 
agitation  and  awaken  a  feeling  of  confidence  in  busi- 


AND   THE    FEDERALIST   PARTY  127 

ness  circles.  To  this  end  Hamilton  came  forth  with 
a  measure  of  startling  boldness.  He  proposed  that 
the  federal  government  should  assume  all  these  state 
debts  and  pay  them,  principal  and  interest ! 

This  was  no  doubt  a  master  stroke  of  policy.  It 
was  one  of  the  most  important  steps  taken  by  Wash 
ington's  administration  toward  setting  the  new  govern 
ment  fairly  upon  its  feet.  Had  it  not  been  for  this  act 
of  assumption  state  creditors  would  have  been  so  jeal 
ous  of  national  creditors,  there  would  have  been  such 
a  jumble  of  clashing  interests,  that  no  steady  financial 
policy  could  have  been  carried  out,  and  people  would 
soon  have  been  impatiently  asking  wherein  was  the 
new  government  any  better  than  the  old.  But  by  this 
act  of  assumption  all  public  creditors,  from  Maine  to 
Georgia,  were  at  once  made  national  creditors,  and  all 
immediately  began  to  feel  a  personal  interest  in 
strengthening  the  federal  government.  This  measure 
of  Hamilton's  was  as  shrewd  as  his  idea  of  having 
governors  appointed  by  the  President  had  been  fool 
ish.  That,  if  adopted,  would  have  sought  to  drive 
men ;  this  was  an  attempt  to  draw  them. 

It  was  Hamilton's  proposal  for  the  assumption  of 
the  state  debts  that  originated  the  first  great  division 
between  political  parties  under  the  Constitution.  It 
also  partly  drew  the  line  of  division  between  the 
Northern  and  the  Southern  states.  In  the  debates  on 
the  ratification  of  the  Constitution  it  did  not  appear 
that  the  desire  for  a  more  perfect  union  was  any 
stronger  at  the  North  than  at  the  South.  Virginia  was 
scarcely  more  afraid  of  centralization  than  Massa 
chusetts,  and  Rhode  Island  was  even  more  backward 
in  ratifying  than  North  Carolina.  But  the  assumption 


128  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

question  tended  to  unite  the  Northern  states  in  favour 
of  a  centralizing  policy  and  the  Southern  states  in 
opposition  to  the  same.  This  was  because  the  great 
majority  of  the  public  creditors  were  to  be  found 
among  Northern  capitalists.  Hamilton's  policy  ap 
pealed  directly  to  their  selfish  interests,  but  it  did  not 
so  appeal  to  the  Southern  planters.  One  of  the  chief 
reasons  for  Virginia's  hesitancy  in  accepting  the  Con 
stitution  had  been  her  fear  that  the  commercial  North 
might  acquire  such  a  majority  in  Congress  as  to  en 
able  it  to  tyrannize  over  the  agricultural  South.  The 
Virginians  now  denounced  the  assumption  policy  as 
unconstitutional,  and  Hamilton  in  self-defence  was 
obliged  to  formulate  what  is  known  as  the  doctrine 
of  "  implied  powers."  He  gave  a  liberal  interpretation 
to  that  clause  in  the  Constitution  (Art  L,  Sect,  viii., 
p.  1 8)  which  authorized  Congress  "to  make  all  laws 
which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into 
execution  "  such  powers  as  are  explicitly  vested  in  the 
government  of  the  United  States.  The  opponents  of 
a  strong  government,  on  the  other  hand,  insisted  upon 
a  strict  and  narrow  interpretation  of  that  clause ;  and 
thus  arose  that  profound  antagonism  between  "  strict 
constructionists  "  and  "  loose  constructionists  "  which 
has  run  through  the  entire  political  history  of  the  last 
hundred  years.  As  a  rule  the  Republican  party  of 
Jefferson,  with  its  lineal  successor,  the  Democratic 
party  from  Jackson  to  Cleveland,  has  advocated  strict 
construction ;  while  loose  construction  has  character 
ized  the  Federalist  party  of  Hamilton,  with  its  later 
representatives,  —  the  National  Republican  party  of 
Quincy  Adams,  the  Clay  and  Webster  wing  of  the 
Whig  -party,  and  the  Republicans  of  the  present  day. 


AND   THE   FEDERALIST  PARTY  129 

This  general  rule,  however,  has  been  seriously  com 
plicated  by  the  fact  that  the  same  party  is  apt  to 
entertain  very  different  views  when  in  power  from 
those  which  it  entertains  when  in  opposition.  The 
tendency  of  the  party  in  possession  of  the  govern 
ment  is  to  interpret  its  powers  liberally,  while  the 
party  in  opposition  seeks  to  restrict  them.  So  gen 
erally  has  this  been  the  case  in  American  history  that 
it  would  be  difficult  to  lay  down  any  theory  of  the 
subject  which  any  statesman  has  consistently  applied 
on  all  occasions.  Hamilton,  however,  was  always  a 
loose  constructionist.  As  we  have  seen,  the  Consti 
tution  was  never  nearly  centralizing  enough  to  suit 
him,  and  the  more  powers  that  could  be  given  to  the 
general  government,  the  better  he  was  satisfied. 

The  division  between  North  and  South  on*  the 
assumption  policy  was  not  complete,  for  here,  as  on 
most  questions  previous  to  1820,  South  Carolina  was 
on  the  Federalist  side.  In  this  particular  instance  her 
interests  were  like  those  of  some  of  the  Northern 
states,  for  she  had  a  heavy  war  debt,  of  which  the  pro 
posed  measure  would  relieve  her.  Even  with  this 
assistance,  however,  the  bitter  fight  over  assumption 
would  have  ended  in  defeat  for  Hamilton,  had  not  an 
other  fight  then  raging  afforded  an  opportunity  for 
compromise.  A  new  city  was  about  to  be  designed 
and  reared  as  the  Federal  capital  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  question  was  where  should  it  be  situated.  The 
Northern  members  of  Congress  were  determined  that 
it  should  not  be  farther  south  than  the  Delaware 
River;  the  Southern  members  were  equally  resolved 
that  it  should  not  be  farther  north  than  the  Potomac ; 
the  result  was  the  first,  and  in  some  respects  the 


130  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

greatest,  instance  of  "log-rolling"  known  to  American 
history.  The  Northern  advocates  of  assumption  car 
ried  their  point  by  yielding  to  the  Southerners  in  the 
matter  of  the  capital.  Congress  assumed  over 
$20,000,000  of  state  debts,  and  the  city  of  Washington 
was  built  upon  the  bank  of  the  Potomac. 

This  was  a  great  victory  for  Hamilton,  for  the  Fed 
eralist  party,  and  for  the  United  States  as  a  nation.  It 
certainly  required  a  pretty  liberal  interpretation  of  the 
Constitution  to  justify  Congress  in  assuming  these 
debts,  but  if  it  had  not  been  done  it  is  very  doubtful  if 
the  Union  could  long  have  been  held  together.  We 
must  always  be  grateful  to  Hamilton  for  his  daring 
and  sagacious  policy,  yet  at  the  same  time  we  must 
acknowledge  that  the  opposition  was  animated  by  a 
sourftl  and  wholesome  feeling.  Every  day  showed 
more  clearly  that  Hamilton's  aim  was  to  insure  the 
stability  of  the  government  through  a  firm  alliance 
with  capitalists,  and  the  fear  was  natural  that  such  a 
policy,  if  not  held  in  check,  might  end  in  transforming 
the  government  into  a  plutocracy,  —  that  is  to  say,  a 
government  in  which  political  power  is  monopolized 
by  rich  men,  and  employed  in  furthering  their  selfish 
interests  without  regard  to  the  general  welfare  of  the 
people.  Those  who  expressed  such  a  fear  were  more 
prescient  than  their  Federalist  adversaries  believed 
them  to  be  ;  for  now  after  the  lapse  of  a  hundred  years 
the  gravest  danger  that  threatens  us  is  precisely  such 
a  plutocracy !  It  has  been  one  of  our  national  misfor 
tunes  that  for  three-quarters  of  a  century  the  mere 
maintenance  of  the  Union  seemed  to  call  for  theories 
which  when  put  into  operation  are  very  far  from  mak 
ing  a.  government  that  is  in  the  fullest  sense  "  of  the 


AND   THE   FEDERALIST   PARTY  131 

people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people."  The  only 
party  that  ever  extricated  itself  from  the  dilemma,  and 
stood  at  one  and  the  same  time  unflinchingly  for  the 
Union  and  against  paternal  government  in  every  form, 
was  the  party  of  Jackson  and  Van  Buren  between 
1830  and  1845.  But  with  Hamilton  paternal  govern 
ment  was  desirable,  not  only  as  a  means  of  strengthen 
ing  the  Union,  but  as  an  end  in  itself.  He  believed  that 
a  part  of  the  people  ought  to  make  laws  for  the  whole. 
Having  now  provided  for  the  complete  assumption 
of  all  debts,  domestic  and  foreign,  state  and  federal,  by 
the  United  States,  the  next  question  was  how  to  raise 
the  money  for  discharging  them.  The  new  govern 
ment  was  regarded  with  distrust  by  many  people.  It 
was  feared  that  the  burden  of  federal  taxation  would 
be  intolerable.  Men  already  found  it  hard  to  pay 
taxes  to  their  town,  their  county,  and  their  state ;  how 
could  they  endure  the  addition  of  a  fourth  tax  to  the 
list?  There  was  but  one  way  to  deal  with  this  diffi 
culty.  Probably  a  general  system  of  direct  taxation 
would  not  have  been  endured.  It  was  accordingly 
necessary  to  depend  almost  entirely  upon  custom-house 
duties.  This  gentle,  insidious  method  enables  vast 
sums  to  be  taken  from  people's  pockets  without  their 
so  much  as  suspecting  it.  It  raises  prices,  that  is  all ; 
and  the  dulness  of  the  human  mind  may  be  safely 
counted  upon,  so  that  when  a  tax  is  wrapped  up  in  the 
extra  fifty  cents  charged  for  a  yard  of  cloth,  it  is  so 
effectually  hidden  that  most  people  do  not  know  it  is 
there.  Custom-house  duties  were  accordingly  levied, 
and  the  foreign  trade  of  the  United  States  was  already 
so  considerable  that  a  large  revenue  was  at  once  real 
ized  from  this  source.  To  win  added  favour  to  this 


132  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

policy  Hamilton  advocated  a  tariff  for  what  is  called 
protection  as  well  as  for  revenue,  although  his  argu 
ment  fell  very  short  of  meeting  the  exorbitant  require 
ments  of  the  pampered  industries  of  our  own  time. 
Here,  as  in  his  assumption  policy,  it  was  Hamilton's 
aim  to  ally  the  government  with  powerful  class  inter 
ests.  He  saw  the  vast  natural  resources  of  the  country 
for  manufactures,  he  knew  that  flourishing  industries 
must  presently  spring  up,  and  he  understood  how  to 
enlist  their  selfish  interests  in  defence  of  a  liberal  con 
struction  of  the  powers  of  government.  A  remarkable 
instance  of  his  foresight  was  exhibited  some  years 
afterward  in  the  case  of  Daniel  Webster,  who,  although 
in  principle  an  advocate  of  free  trade,  nevertheless 
succumbed  to  the  protectionists  and  allied  himself 
with  them,  in  order  to  save  the  principle  of  loose  con 
struction  and  thus  leave  the  general  government  with 
powers  adequate  to  the  paramount  purpose  of  preserv 
ing  the  Union. 

The  necessity  of  relying  chiefly  upon  custom-house 
duties  was  strikingly  illustrated  by  the  reception  given 
in  one  part  of  the  country  to  a  direct  federal  tax. 
Upon  distilled  liquors  Hamilton  thought  it  right  to 
lay  a  direct  excise;  but* it  was  with  some  difficulty 
that  he  succeeded  in  getting  the  measure  through 
Congress,  and  it  was  no  sooner  enacted  than  riotous 
protests  began  to  come  from  the  mountain  districts  of 
North  Carolina,  Virginia,  and  Pennsylvania.  The 
highest  tax  laid  on  whiskey  was  only  twenty-five  cents 
per  gallon,  but  it  led  to  such  serious  disturbances  in 
western  Pennsylvania  that  in  the  summer  of  1794 
President  Washington  raised  an  army  of  15,000  men 
to  deal  with  them.  It  was  the  design  of  the  malcon- 


AND  THE    FEDERALIST   PARTY  133 

tents  to  capture  the  federal  garrison  at  Pittsburg, 
and  then  to  secede  from  the  Union,  together  with  the 
western  counties  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  and 
form  an  independent  state  of  which  the  corner-stone 
should  be  free  whiskey.  But  Washington's  action 
was  so  prompt  and  his  force  so  overwhelming  that 
the  rebellion  suddenly  collapsed  without  bloodshed. 
Thus  the  strength  of  the  government  was  most  hap 
pily  asserted  and  Hamilton's  financial  policy  sustained 
in  all  particulars. 

The  completion  of  Hamilton's  general  scheme  was 
the  establishment  of  a  national  bank,  in  which  the 
government  was  to  own  a  certain  portion  of  the  stock, 
and  which  was  to  make  certain  stated  loans  to  the 
government.  This  was  another  feature  of  the  alli 
ance  between  the  government  and  the  moneyed 
classes.  Like  the  other  kindred  measures,  it  was 
attacked  as  unconstitutional,  and  as  in  the  other  cases 
the  objection  was  met  by  asserting  the  loose  construc- 
tionist  theory  of  the  Constitution.  Hamilton's  finan 
cial  policy  was  thus  in  the  widest  sense  a  political 
policy.  In  these  methods  of  obtaining  revenue  and 
regulating  commerce  were  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
whole  theory  of  government  upon  which  our  federal 
Union  was  built  up.  Their  immediate  effect  in  re 
viving  the  national  credit  was  marvellous.  They  met 
with  most  hearty  support  in  the  Northern  states,  while 
in  the  purely  agricultural  state  of  Virginia  they  were 
regarded  with  distrust,  and  under  the  leadership  of 
Jefferson  and  Madison  there  was  developed  a  power 
ful  opposition  which  was  soon  to  prove  wholesome  as 
a  restraint  upon  the  excesses  into  which  pure  federal 
ism  was  betrayed. 


134  ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

It  was  the  French  Revolution  and  the  consequent 
war  between  France  and  Great  Britain  that  so  reacted 
upon  American  politics  as  to  bring  about  the  down 
fall  of  the  Federalist  party  and  hurry  to  an  untimely 
end  the  career  of  its  illustrious  founder.  During  the 
last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  whole  civil 
ized  world  seemed  bitten  with  the  fierce  malady  that 
was  raging  in  France.  Semel  insanivimus  omnes.  In 
America  the  excitement  soon  reached  such  a  point  as 
to  subordinate  all  questions  of  domestic  policy;  and 
Hamilton's  opponents,  foiled  in  their  attempts  to  de 
feat  his  financial  measures,  were  not  unwilling  to  shift 
the  scene  of  battle  to  the  questions  connected  with 
our  foreign  relations.  It  was  the  aim  of  the  French 
revolutionary  party  to  drag  the  United  States  into 
war  with  Great  Britain,  but  the  only  sound  policy  for 
the  Americans  was  that  of  strict  neutrality.  The  in 
solence  of  the  British  court  made  this  a  very  difficult 
course  to  pursue,  and  probably  it  would  have  been 
impossible  had  not  the  French  in  their  demands  upon 
us  shown  equal  insolence.  The  pendulum  of  popular 
feeling  in  America,  under  the  stimulus  of  alternate 
insults  from  London  and  from  Paris,  vibrated  to  and 
fro.  The  Federalists,  as  friends  of  strong  government, 
saw  in  the  French  convulsions  nothing  but  the  orgies 
of  a  crazy  mob ;  while  on  the  other  hand  the  Repub 
licans  had  a  keener  appreciation  of  the  vileness  of  the 
despotism  that  was  being  swept  away  and  the  whole 
some  nature  of  the  reforms  that  were  being  effected 
amid  all  the  horrors  and  bloodshed.  Under  the  influ 
ence  of  such  feelings  the  antagonism  between  Hamil 
ton  and  Jefferson  grew  into  a  bitter  personal  feud,  and 
the  quarrels  in  the  cabinet  were  so  fierce  that  Wash- 


AND   THE    FEDERALIST   PARTY  135 

ington  once  exclaimed  he  would  rather  be  in  his  grave 
than  sit  and  listen  to  them.  Never,  perhaps,  did 
Washington's  strength  of  character  seem  more  colos 
sal  than  in  the  steadiness  with  which  he  pursued  his 
course  amid  that  wild  confusion. 

The  first  outburst  of  popular  wrath  was  against 
Great  Britain  on  the  occasion  of  the  Jay  treaty  in 
1 794.  The  treaty  was  called  a  base  surrender  to  the 
British,  and  Hamilton  was  stoned  while  attempting  to 
defend  it  in  a  public  meeting  in  New  York.  Wash 
ington's  personal  authority,  more  than  anything  else, 
carried  the  treaty  and  averted  war  with  Great  Britain. 
At  that  moment  the  Republican  opposition  was  at  its 
height,  and  scurrilous  newspapers  heaped  anathemas 
upon  Washington,  calling  him  the  "  stepfather  of  his 
country."  But  as  the  Jay  treaty  enraged  the  French 
and  made  them  more  abusive  than  ever,  the  zeal  of  the 
Republican  sympathizers  began  to  cool  rapidly.  When 
in  1 798  it  appeared  that  Prince  Talleyrand  was  trying 
to  extort  blackmail  from  the  United  States,  popular 
wrath  in  America  was  turned  against  France,  the  war 
cry  was  raised,  "  Millions  for  defence,  not  one  cent  for 
tribute,"  the  Republicans  were  struck  dumb,  and  the 
Federalists  seemed  to  be  riding  on  the  top  of  the  tide. 
In  a  moment  of  over-confidence  the  latter  now 
ventured  upon  a  step  which  soon  led  to  their  down 
fall.  In  their  eagerness  to  keep  out  intriguing  foreign 
ers  and  curb  the  license  of  the  newspapers,  they  carried 
through  Congress  the  famous  alien  and  sedition  laws. 
Through  Hamilton's  influence  these  acts  were  some 
what  softened  in  passing,  but  as  passed  they  were 
palpably  in  violation  of  the  Constitution,  and  infringed 
so  outrageously  upon  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the 


136  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

press  as  to  seem  to  justify  all  that  had  been  said  by 
Republicans  as  to  the  dangerous  aims  and  tendencies 
of  the  Federalist  party. 

During  the  two  years  preceding  the  election  of  1800 
the  Federalists  steadily  lost  ground,  and  the  very  war 
fever  which  had  for  a  moment  so  powerfully  aided  them 
now  gave  rise  to  dissensions  within  their  own  ranks. 
Between  Hamilton  and  John  Adams  there  had  been 
for  some  time  a  feeling  of  jealousy  and  distrust,  not 
based  upon  any  serious  difference  of  policy,  but  simply 
upon  the  fact  that  one  party  was  not  large  enough  to 
hold  two  men  of  such  aggressive  and  masterful  tem 
perament.  As  is  apt  to  be  the  case  with  mere  personal 
differences,  in  which  no  question  of  principle  is 
involved,  it  was  marked  by  pettiness  and  silliness  on 
both  sides.  As  in  those  days  the  electoral  tickets  did 
not  distinguish  between  the  candidates  for  the  presi 
dency  and  the  vice-presidency,  it  was  possible  to  have 
such  a  thing  as  a  tie  between  the  two  candidates  of  the 
same  party;  it  was  even  possible  that  through  some 
accident  or  trick  the  person  intended  by  the  party  for 
the  second  place  might  get  more  electoral  votes  than 
his  companion  and  thus  be  elected  over  him.  In  1796 
the  Federalist  candidates  were  John  Adams  and 
Thomas  Pinckney,  and  the  advice  given  privately  by 
Hamilton  to  his  friends  was  such  as  would,  if  not 
thwarted,  have  made  Pinckney  President  and  Adams 
Vice-president.  Hamilton's  conduct  on  this  occasion 
was  certainly  wanting  in  frankness,  and  when  Adams 
discovered  it  he  naturally  felt  ill  used.  The  relations 
between  the  two  were  made  more  uncomfortable  by 
the  fact  that  Hamilton,  although  now  in  private  life, 
seemed  to  have  more  influence  with  Adams's  cabinet 


AND   THE    FEDERALIST   PARTY  137 

than  Adams  himself.  In  1798  the  President  saw  a 
chance  to  retaliate.  A  provisional  army  was  to  be 
raised  in  view  of  the  expected  war  with  France,  and 
Washington  accepted  the  chief  command  on  condition 
that  he  might  choose  his  principal  officers.  With  this 
understanding  he  named  as  his  three  major-generals 
Hamilton,  Cotesworth  Pinckney,  and  Knox.  Presi 
dent  Adams  tried  to  reverse  this  order,  on  the  ground 
that  in  the  revolutionary  army  Knox's  rank  was  higher 
than  Hamilton's.  A  quarrel  ensued  which  involved 
the  whole  Federalist  party,  and  was  ended  only  when 
Washington  declared  that  unless  his  wishes  were 
respected  he  should  resign.  Before  such  a  stroke  as 
this  even  Adams's  obstinacy  must  give  way,  and  he 
was  placed  in  the  humiliating  attitude  of  a  man 
who  has  not  only  tried  to  do  a  mean  thing,  but  has 
failed. 

If  John  Adams,  however,  could  be  weak,  he  could 
also  be  very  strong,  and  his  course  during  the  year 
1799  was  nothing  less  than  heroic.  France  was  so  far 
affected  by  the  warlike  preparations  of  the  United 
States  as  to  begin  taking  informal  steps  toward  a 
reconciliation,  and  Adams,  who  knew  that  war  ought 
if  possible  to  be  avoided,  resolved  to  meet  her  half 
way.  In  spite  of  the  protests  of  leading  Federalists, 
including  part  of  his  own  cabinet,  he  sent  envoys  to 
France,  who  in  the  following  year  succeeded  in  making 
a  treaty  with  Napoleon  as  First  Consul.  In  taking 
this  step  Adams  knew  that  he  was  breaking  up  his 
own  party  on  the  eve  of  a  presidential  election ;  he 
knew  that  he  was  thus  in  all  probability  ruining  his 
own  chances  for  that  second  term  which  he  desired 
most  intensely ;  but  he  acted  with  a  single  eye  to  the 


138  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

welfare  of  the  country,  and  in  all  American  history  it 
would  be  hard  to  point  to  a  nobler  act. 

The  ensuing  year,  1800,  was  one  of  dire  political 
confusion.  In  the  spring  election  in  New  York  Ham 
ilton  contended  unsuccessfully  against  the  wiles  of 
Aaron  Burr;  a  Republican  legislature  was  chosen, 
and  in  the  autumn  this  legislature  would  of  course 
choose  Republican  electors  for  President.  Political 
passion  now  so  far  prevailed  with  Hamilton  as  to  lead 
him  to  propose  to  Governor  Jay  to  call  an  extra  ses 
sion  of  the  old  legislature  and  give  the  choice  of 
presidential  electors  to  districts.  This  would  divide 
the  presidential  vote  of  New  York  and  really  defeat 
the  will  of  the  people  as  just  expressed.  Jay  refused 
to  lend  himself  to  such  a  scheme.  That  Hamilton 
should  ever  have  entertained  it  shows  how  far  he  was 
blinded  by  the  dread  of  what  might  follow  if  Jefferson 
and  the  Republicans  should  get  control  of  the  national 
government. 

Yet  in  spite  of  this  dread  he  took  the  very  rash  step 
of  writing  a  pamphlet  attacking  Adams,  and  advising 
Federalists  to  vote  for  him  only  as  a  less  dangerous 
candidate  than  Jefferson.  This  pamphlet  was  intended 
only  for  private  circulation,  but  Burr  contrived  to  get 
hold  of  it,  and  its  publication  helped  the  Republicans. 

Even  with  all  this  dissension  among  their  antago 
nists,  the  Republican  victory  of  1800  was  a  narrow 
one.  Adams  obtained  sixty-five  electoral  votes.  The 
Republican  candidates,  Jefferson  and  Burr,  each  ob 
tained  seventy-three,  and  it  was  left  for  the  House  of 
Representatives  to  decide  which  of  the  two  should  be 
President.  Nobody  had  the  slightest  doubt  that  the 
choice  of  the  party  was  Jefferson,  and  that  Burr  was 


AND   THE    FEDERALIST   PARTY  139 

intended  to  be  Vice-president,  but  the  situation  offered 
an  opportunity  for  intrigue.  Many  leading  Federalists 
were  so  bent  upon  defeating  their  arch-enemy,  Jefferson, 
that  they  were  ready  to  aid  in  raising  Burr  above  him. 
But  political  passion  could  not  so  far  confuse  Hamil 
ton's  sense  of  right  and  wrong  as  to  lead  him  to  inflict 
such  a  calamity  upon  the  country.  His  great  influence 
prevented  the  wicked  and  dangerous  scheme  on  the  part 
of  the  Federalists,  and  Jefferson  became  President. 

In  a  most  tragic  and  painful  way  the  shadow  of 
the  duel  was  now  thrown  across  Hamilton's  career. 
His  eldest  son,  Philip,  aged  eighteen,  a  noble  and  high- 
spirited  boy,  of  most  brilliant  promise,  had  just  been 
graduated  at  Columbia.  In  the  summer  of  1801  this 
young  man  was  bitterly  incensed  at  some  foul  asper 
sions  on  his  father  which  were  let  fall  in  a  public 
speech  by  a  political  enemy.  Meeting  this  unscrupu 
lous  speaker  some  few  evenings  afterward  in  a  box  at 
the  theatre,  high  words  ensued,  and  a  challenge  was 
given.  The  duel  took  place  on  the  ledge  below  Wee- 
hawken  Heights,  which  was  then  the  customary  place  for 
such  affairs.  Young  Hamilton  fell  mortally  wounded 
at  the  first  fire,  and  was  carried  home  to  die.  As 
one  reads  of  the  agonized  father,  on  hearing  the  first 
alarming  tidings,  running  to  summon  the  doctor  and 
fainting  on  the  way,  it  comes  home  to  one's  heart  to 
day  with  a  sense  of  personal  affliction.  The  student 
of  history  becomes  inured  to  scenes  of  woe,  but  it  is 
hard  to  be  reconciled  to  such  things  as  the  shocking 
death  of  this  noble  boy. 

It  was  to  be  the  father's  turn  next.  The  unprinci 
pled  intrigues  of  Burr  with  the  Federalists  had  ruined 
his  chances  of  advancement  in  the  Republican  party. 


140  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

His  only  hope  seemed  to  lie  in  further  intrigues  with 
the  Federalists.  The  wonderful  success  of  Jefferson's 
administration  was  winning  fresh  supporters  daily  from 
the  opposite  ranks,  and  the  Federalist  minority  was 
fast  becoming  factious  and  unscrupulous.  It  was  be 
lieved  by  some  that  Timothy  Pickering  and  others  in 
New  England  were  meditating  secession  from  the 
Union  and  the  establishment  of  a  Northern  confed 
eracy,  to  which  New  York,  and  perhaps  New  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania,  might  be  added.  Burr  was  a  vain 
and  shallow  dreamer.  As  governor  of  New  York  he 
might  rise  to  be  president  of  a  Northern  confederacy. 
At  any  rate  it  was  worth  while  to  be  governor  of  New 
York,  and  Burr,  while  still  Vice-president  of  the  United 
States,  became  a  candidate  for  that  position  in  1804. 
Hamilton  had  earned  the  gratitude  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen  by  thwarting  Burr's  schemes  in  1801. 
He  now  thwarted  them  again.  Burr  failed  of  election 
and  vowed  revenge.  His  political  prospects  were 
already  well-nigh  ruined ;  to  a  wretch  like  him  there 
was  some  satisfaction  in  killing  the  man  who  had 
stood  in  his  way.  The  affair  was  cool  and  deliberate. 
He  practised  firing  at  a  target,  while  in  a  crafty  cor 
respondence  he  wound  his  vile  meshes  around  his 
enemy,  and  at  length  confronted  him  with  a  challenge. 
Hamilton  seems  to  have  accepted  it  because  he  felt 
that  circumstances  might  still  call  for  him  to  play  a 
leading  part  in  national  affairs,  and  that  to  decline  a 
challenge  might  impair  his  usefulness.  The  meeting 
took  place  on  the  nth  of  July,  1804,  at  that  ill-fated 
spot  under  Weehawken  Heights.  Hamilton  fell  at  the 
first  fire,  and  was  carried  home,  to  die  the  next  day. 
The  excitement  in  New  York  was  intense.  Vast 


AND   THE   FEDERALIST   PARTY  141 

crowds  surrounded  the  bulletins  which  told  of  the 
ebbing  of  his  life,  and  their  sobs  and  tears  were  min 
gled  with  fierce  oaths  and  threats  against  the  slayer. 
As  the  news  slowly  spread  through  the  country,  the 
tongue  of  political  enmity  was  silenced,  and  the  mourn 
ing  was  like  that  called  forth  in  after  years  by  the  mur 
der  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  has  been  thought  that  the 
deep  and  lasting  impression  produced  by  this  affair 
had  much  to  do  with  the  discredit  into  which  the 
practice  of  duelling  speedily  fell  throughout  the 
Northern  states. 

When  Alexander  Hamilton's  life  was  thus  cut 
short,  he  was  only  in  his  eight-and-fortieth  year. 
Could  he  have  attained  such  a  great  age  as  his  rival, 
John  Adams,  he  might  have  witnessed  the  Mexican 
War  and  the  Wilmot  Proviso.  Without  reaching 
extreme  old  age  he  might  have  listened  to  Webster's 
reply  to  Hayne,  and  felt  his  heart  warm  at  Jackson's 
autocratic  and  decisive  announcement  that  the  fed 
eral  Union  must  be  preserved.  One  may  wonder 
what  his  political  course  would  have  been  had  he 
lived  longer;  but  it  seems  clear  that  he  would  soon 
have  parted  company  with  the  Federalists.  He  had 
already  taken  the  initial  step  in  breaking  with  them 
by  approving  Jefferson's  purchase  of  Louisiana.  The 
narrow  sectional  policy  of  Pickering  and  the  New 
England  Federalists  was  already  distasteful  to  him. 
As  the  Republican  party  became  more  and  more 
national,  he  would  have  found  himself  inclining 
toward  it  as  John  Adams  did,  and  perhaps  might  even 
have  come,  like  Adams  in  later  years,  to  recognize  the 
merits  and  virtues  of  the  great  man  whose  name  had 
once  seemed  to  him  to  typify  anarchy  and  misrule,  — 


142  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

Thomas  Jefferson.  Such  mellowing  influence  does 
wide  and  long  experience  of  life  sometimes  have, 
when  one  can  witness  great  changes  in  the  situation 
of  affairs,  that  we  may  be  sure  it  would  not  have  been 
without  its  effect  upon  Alexander  Hamilton.  When 
the  new  division  of  parties  came,  after  1825,  there  can 
hardly  be  a  doubt  that  he  would  have  found  his  place 
by  the  side  of  Webster  and  John  Quincy  Adams. 

At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  inclined  to  gloomy 
views  of  the  political  future,  for  he  lacked  that  serene 
and  patient  faith  in  the  slow  progressiveness  of  aver 
age  humanity  which  was  the  strong  point  in  Jefferson. 
His  disposition  was  to  force  the  human  plant  and  to 
trim  and  prune  it,  and  when  he  saw  other  methods 
winning  favour,  it  made  him  despondent.  He  was  in 
his  last  days  thinking  of  abandoning  practical  politics 
and  writing  a  laborious  scientific  treatise  on  the  his 
tory  and  philosophy  of  civil  government.  Such  a 
book  from  the  principal  author  of  the  "  Federalist " 
could  hardly  have  failed  to  be  a  great  and  useful  book, 
whatever  theories  it  might  have  propounded.  But 
since  we  have  it  not,  we  may  well  be  content  with  the 
"  Federalist "  itself,  a  literary  monument  great  enough 
for  any  man  and  any  nation.  And  as  for  Hamilton, 
his  quick  insight,  his  boldness  of  initiative,  and  his 
rare  constructive  genius  have  stamped  his  personality 
so  deeply  upon  American  history  that,  in  spite  of  his 
untimely  death,  his  career  has  for  this  and  for  future 
generations  all  the  interest  that  belongs  to  a  complete 
and  well-rounded  tale. 


IV 

THOMAS   JEFFERSON 
THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER 


IV 
THOMAS   JEFFERSON 

THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER 

IN  the  development  of  English  civilization  on  its 
political  side  there  have  been  few  agencies  more 
potent  than  those  represented  by  the  independent 
yeomanry  and  the  country  squire.  In  the  history  of 
such  a  country  as  France,  until  very  recent  times,  the 
small  rural  freeholder  scarcely  plays  a  part  There 
under  the  old  regime  we  see  the  powerful  nobleman 
in  his  grim  chateau,  surrounded  by  villages  of  peas 
antry  holding  their  property  by  a  servile  tenure.  The 
nobleman  is  exempt  from  taxation,  his  children  are  all 
nobles  and  share  in  this  exemption,  so  that  they  con 
stitute  a  class  quite  distinct  from  the  common  people 
and  having  but  little  sympathy  with  them.  The  only 
middle  class  is  to  be  found  in  the  large  walled  towns, 
whose  burghers  have  acquired  from  the  sovereign 
sundry  privileges  and  immunities  in  exchange,  per 
haps,  for  money  furnished  to  aid  him  in  putting  down 
rebellious  vassals.  Representative  assemblies  are 
weak  and  their  means  of  curbing  the  crown  very 
limited,  so  that  early  in  the  seventeenth  century  they 
fall  into  disuse ;  and  as  the  crown  gradually  conquers 
its  vassals  and  annexes  their  domains,  the  result  is  at 
length  an  extremely  centralized  and  oppressive  des 
potism  in  which  the  upper  classes  are  supported  in 
L  145 


146  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

luxurious  idleness  by  taxes  wrung  from  a  groaning 
peasantry.  The  state  of  things  becomes  so  bad  that 
a  radical  reform  is  possible  only  at  the  cost  of  a  fright 
ful  paroxysm  of  anarchy;  and  the  traditions  of  per 
sonal  independence  are  so  completely  lost  that  a 
century  of  earnest  struggle  has  not  yet  sufficed  to 
regain  them.  As  a  little  American  girl  observed  the 
other  day,  as  the  net  result  of  her  first  impressions  of 
Paris,  "  Every  man  here  has  to  have  some  other  man 
to  see  that  he  does  what  he  ought  to  do." 

Now  in  the  history  of  England  perhaps  the  most 
striking  of  all  the  many  points  of  contrast  with  French 
history  consists  in  the  position  of  the  rural  landholder. 
The  greatest  proprietor  in  the  country,  though  almost 
sure  to  be  a  peer,  does  not  belong  to  a  different  class 
from  the  common  people:  his  children  are  not  peers, 
and  only  one  of  them  is  likely  to  become  so,  except 
perhaps  for  personal  merit.  There  is  no  more  promis 
ing  career  for  the  younger  son  than  is  offered  by  a 
chance  to  represent  the  voters  of  his  county  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  thus  there  has  never  been 
a  sharp  division  between  classes,  as  there  used  to  be  in 
France.  Noble  families  have  always  paid  their  full 
share  of  the  taxes.  The  small  tenants  have  in  many 
cases  been  freeholders,  and  since  the  fourteenth  cen 
tury  the  higher  kinds  of  servile  tenures,  such  as  copy 
hold,  have  practically  ceased  to  be  servile.  The  higher 
grades  of  copyholders  and  the  smaller  freeholders  con 
stitute  that  class  of  yeomanry  that  has  counted  for  so 
much  in  history.  Of  old  these  small  freeholders  were 
often  known  as  "  franklins,"  and  one  of  their  American 
descendants,  winning  an  immortal  name,  has  illustrated 
the  many  virtues,  the  boldness  and  thrift,  the  upright- 


THE   CONSERVATIVE    REFORMER  147 

ness  and  canny  tact,  which  has  made  them  such  a 
power  in  the  world.  Of  somewhat  higher  dignity  than 
the  mere  freeholder  was  the  "  lord  of  the  manor,"  or 
country  squire  with  tenants  under  him.  He  might  be 
the  son  of  a  peer,  or  he  might  be  a  yeoman  who  had 
risen  in  life.  This  rural  middle-class  had  many  points 
of  contact  on  the  one  hand  with  the  nobility  and  on 
the  other  hand  with  the  burghers  of  the  large  towns. 
They  were  all  used  from  time  immemorial  to  carrying 
on  public  business  and  settling  questions  of  general 
interest  by  means  of  local  representative  assemblies. 
There  was  far  less  antagonism  between  town  and 
country  than  on  the  Continent,  and  when  it  became 
necessary  to  curb  the  sovereign  it  was  comparatively 
easy  for  the  middle  class  in  town  and  country  to  join 
hands  with  part  of  the  nobility  for  that  purpose. 

We  can  thus  understand  why  the  earl  and  his  castle 
have  not  furnished  popular  tradition  with  the  themes 
of  such  blood-curdling  legends  as  have  surrounded  the 
count  and  his  chateau.  The  old  English  yeoman, 
with  his  yew-tree  bow  and  clothyard  shaft,  was  the 
most  independent  of  mortals,  and  nothing  could  exceed 
his  pitying  contempt  of  the  whole  array  of  armoured 
knights  and  starveling  peasantry  that  he  scattered  in 
headlong  flight  at  Poitiers  and  Navarrete.  His  lord 
of  the  manor  was  not  so  much  the  taskmaster  of  his 
tenants  as  their  leader  and  representative.  A  sturdy 
and  thrifty  race  were  these  old  English  squires.  To 
day  perhaps  it  was  to  call  out  their  archers  and  march 
against  the  invading  Scot ;  to-morrow  it  was  to  sit  in 
Parliament  with  hats  drawn  over  their  knitted  brows 
and  put  into  dutiful  but  ominous  phrases  some  stern 
demand  for  a  redress  of  wrongs.  Age  after  age  of  such 


148  THOMAS   JEFFERSON 

discipline  made  them  capable  managers  of  affairs,  keenly 
alive  to  the  bearings  of  political  questions,  and  fierce 
sticklers  for  local  rights.  There  never  existed  a  class 
of  men  better  fitted  for  laying  the  foundations  of  a 
nation  in  which  a  broad  and  liberal  democracy  should 
be  found  compatible  with  ingrained  respect  for  parlia 
mentary  methods  and  constitutional  checks. 

Now  it  was  this  middle  class  of  squires  and  yeo 
manry  that  furnished  the  best  part  of  colonial  society 
in  Virginia,  as  it  furnished  pretty  much  the  whole  of 
colonial  society  in  New  England.  An  urban  middle 
class  of  merchants  and  artisans  came  in  greater  num 
bers  to  New  England  than  to  Virginia,  and  the  South 
ern  colony,  besides  its  negroes,  received  a  very  low 
class  of  population  in  the  indented  white  servants,  who 
seem  to  have  been  the  progenitors  of  the  modern 
"white  trash."  But  the  characteristic  society  —  that 
which  has  made  the  histories  of  New  England  and  of 
Virginia  what  they  are  —  had  the  same  origin  in  both 
cases.  There  was  also  in  both  cases  a  principle  of 
selection  at  work,  although  not  so  early  in  Virginia  as 
in  New  England.  As  the  latter  country  was  chiefly 
settled  between  1629  and  1640,  the  years  when 
Charles  I.  was  reigning  without  a  Parliament,  so  the 
former  received  the  most  valuable  portion  of  its  settlers 
during  the  Commonwealth,  when  the  son  of  that  un 
fortunate  monarch  was  off  upon  his  travels.  Men  who 
leave  their  country  for  conscience'  sake  are  apt  to  be 
picked  men  for  ability  and  character,  no  matter  what 
side  they  may  have  espoused.  Our  politics  may  be 
those  of  Samuel  Adams,  but  we  must  admit  that  the 
Hutchinson  type  of  character  is  a  valuable  one  to  have 
in  the  community.  Of  the  gallant  cavaliers  who  fought 


THE   CONSERVATIVE    REFORMER  149 

for  King  Charles  there  were  many  who  no  more  ap 
proved  of  his  crooked  methods  and  despotic  aims  than 
Hutchinson  approved  of  the  Stamp  Act.  A  proper 
combination  of  circumstances  was  all  that  was  required 
to  bring  their  children  into  active  alliance  with  the 
children  of  the  Puritans.  Most  of  the  great  leaders 
that  Virginia  gave  to  the  American  Revolution  were 
descended  from  men  who  had  drawn  sword  against 
Oliver  Cromwell;  and  a  powerful  set  of  men  they  were. 
Virginia  has  always  known  how  to  produce  great 
leaders.  The  short-lived  Southern  Confederacy  would 
have  been  much  shorter  lived  but  for  Lee,  Johnston, 
and  Jackson  ;  and  the  cause  of  the  Union  would  have 
fared  much  harder  but  for  the  invincible  Thomas. 

Colonial  life  in  Virginia  departed  less  than  in  New 
England  from  the  contemporary  type  of  rural  life  in 
the  mother  country.  Agriculture  in  New  England 
throve  best  with  small  farms  cultivated  by  their  owners, 
and  this  developed  the  type  of  yeomanry,  while  the 
ecclesiastical  organization  tended  to  concentrate  the 
population  into  self-governing  village  communities. 
Agriculture  in  Virginia  seemed  to  thrive  best  with 
great  estates  cultivated  by  gangs  of  labourers,  and  this 
prevented  the  growth  of  villages.  The  Virginia 
planter  occupied  a  position  somewhat  like  that  of  the 
English  country  squire.  He  had  extensive  estates  to 
superintend  and  county  interests  to  look  after.  He 
was  surrounded  by  dependents,  mostly  slaves  indeed, 
and  in  this  aspect  the  divergence  from  English  custom 
was  great  and  injurious;  still  Virginia  slavery  was  of 
a  mild  type.  In  his  House  of  Burgesses  the  planter 
had  a  parliament,  and  in  the  royal  governor,  represent 
ing  a  distant  sovereign,  there  was  a  source  of  antago- 


150  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

nism  and  distrust  requiring  him  to  keep  his  faculties 
perpetually  alert,  and  to  remember  all  the  legal  maxims 
by  which  the  liberties  of  Englishmen  had  been  defended 
since  the  days  of  Bracton  and  Fortescue. 

It  was  into  this  community  that  Thomas  Jefferson 
was  born  on  the  I3th  of  April,  1743.  His  first  Ameri 
can  ancestor  on  the  father's  side  had  come  to  Virginia 
among  the  very  earliest  settlers,  and  was  a  member 
of  the  assembly  of  1619,  the  first  legislative  body  of 
Englishmen  that  ever  met  on  this  side  of  the  ocean. 
The  Jeffersons  belonged  to  the  class  of  yeomanry. 
Thomas's  father  was  a  man  of  colossal  stature  and 
strength,  which  the  son  inherited.  Like  Washington, 
he  was  a  land  surveyor  and  familiar  with  the  ways  of 
Indians.  His  farm,  on  which  wheat  was  cultivated  as 
well  as  tobacco,  by  about  thirty  slaves,  was  situated  on 
what  was  then  the  western  frontier,  near  the  junction 
of  the  Rivanna  River  with  the  James.  He  was  a 
justice  of  the  peace,  colonel  of  the  county  militia, 
and  for  some  time  member  of  the  House  of  Burgesses. 
He  died  suddenly  in  1757,  perhaps  from  exposure  in 
the  arduous  frontier  campaigning  of  that  year. 

Thomas's  mother  was  Jane  Randolph,  daughter  of 
one  of  the  most  patrician  families  in  Virginia.  From 
her  he  is  said  to  have  inherited  his  extreme  tenderness 
of  nature  and  aversion  to  strife,  as  well  as  his  love  of 
music.  From  his  father  he  derived  a  strong  taste  for 
mathematics  and  the  constructive  arts,  a  punctilious 
accuracy  in  all  matters  of  business,  a  hatred  of  cere 
mony,  and  a  dislike  to  have  other  people  wait  upon 
him.  Thomas,  when  full  grown,  was  six  feet  and  two 
inches  in  height,  lithe  and  sinewy,  erect  and  alert,  with 
reddish  hair  and  bright  hazel  eyes.  His  features  were 


THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  151 

by  no  means  handsome,  but  the  expression  of  his  face 
was  attractive.  As  a  daring  horseman,  a  dead  shot 
with  a  rifle,  and  a  skilful  player  of  the  violin,  he  was 
remarkable  even  among  Virginians.  Until  he  entered 
William  and  Mary  College,  at  the  age  of  seventeen, 
he  had  never  seen  a  village  of  as  many  as  twenty 
houses;  but  since  his  ninth  year  he  had  pored  over 
Latin  and  Greek,  and  a  box  of  mathematical  instru 
ments  and  a  table  of  logarithms  were  his  constant 
companions.  In  college  he  worked  with  furious  en 
ergy,  and  besides  his  classical  and  scientific  studies 
he  kept  up  an  extensive  reading  in  English,  French, 
and  Italian.  He  used  to  keep  a  clock  in  his  bedroom, 
and  get  up  and  go  to  work  as  soon  as  it  was  light 
enough  to  see  what  time  it  was.  After  leaving  col 
lege  he  studied  law  under  one  of  the  best  of  teachers, 
George  Wythe,  and  in  two  of  the  best  of  text-books, 
Bracton  and  Coke.  He  had  a  keen  appreciation  of 
the  Toryism  of  Blackstone,  and  some  suspicion  of  the 
mistaken  standpoint  from  which  that  charming  writer 
viewed  the  development  of  the  English  constitution, 
as  has  been  shown  in  our  day,  with  such  wealth  of 
learning,  by  Freeman  and  Stubbs.  He  also  gave 
much  attention  to  Montesquieu  and  Locke,  and  the 
Parliamentary  debates.  In  1767  he  began  the  prac 
tice  of  law,  and  in  1769  was  elected  to  the  House  cf 
Burgesses.  In  1772  he  was  married  to  the  blooming 
widow  of  Bathurst  Skelton.  His  first  notable  political 
act  was  in  1774,  on  the  occasion  of  the  convention 
held  in  August  for  choosing  delegates  to  the  first 
Continental  Congress.  Being  prevented  by  illness 
from  attending  the  convention,  he  drew  up  a  series  of 
instructions  such  as  he  hoped  the  convention  would 


152  '  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

give  to  the  delegates.  This  paper,  when  read  in  the 
convention,  was  so  much  liked  that  it  was  printed  as 
a  pamphlet  under  the  title  of  "  A  Summary  View  of 
the  Rights  of  British  America."  In  this  paper  Jeffer 
son  set  forth  a  doctrine  which  was  very  popular  with 
the  Americans  at  that  time,  and  deservedly  so,  because 
it  gave  expression  to  the  view  of  their  relations  with 
Great  Britain  upon  which  they  had  always  implicitly 
acted.  Jefferson  held  that  "  the  relation  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  colonies  was  exactly  the  same 
as  that  of  England  and  Scotland"  between  1603  and 
1607,  "and  the  same  as  her  present  relations  with 
Hanover,  having  the  same  executive  chief,  but  no 
other  necessary  connection."  The  Americans  acknow 
ledged  the  headship  of  the  king,  but  not  the  authority 
of  Parliament,  and  when  that  body  undertook  to  legis 
late  for  Americans,  it  was  simply  a  case  of  "  one  free 
and  independent  legislature  "  presuming  "  to  suspend 
the  powers  of  another,  as  free  and  independent  as  it 
self."  James  Otis  had  said  things  not  unlike  this  a 
dozen  years  before,  when  he  argued  that  the  supremacy 
of  the  colonial  assembly  in  Massachusetts  was  as  indis 
putable  and  as  sacred  as  that  of  the  Parliament  in 
Great  Britain ;  and  similar  arguments  had  been  used 
by  Samuel  Adams  and  others.  But  Jefferson's  terse 
way  of  stating  the  case  had  a  decided  savour  of  revo 
lution  about  it.  His  pamphlet  went  through  ever  so 
many  editions  in  England ;  its  arguments  were  incor 
porated  into  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Continen 
tal  Congress ;  and  in  the  following  spring  Jefferson 
was  himself  elected  a  delegate  to  that  great  Revolu 
tionary  body.  He  was  then  thirty-two  years  old,  and 
the  only  delegates  younger  than  himself  were  John 


THE    CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  153 

Jay,  aged  thirty,  and  Edward  Rutledge,  aged  twenty- 
six.  Four  days  before  he  took  his  seat  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill  was  fought,  and  when  the  news  reached 
Philadelphia  he  was  appointed  on  a  committee  with 
Dickinson  and  others  for  drawing  up  a  manifesto  justi 
fying  to  the  world  the  course  of  the  Americans.  The 
manifesto  as  published  contained  only  a  few  words  of 
his,  but  among  them  were  the  following :  "  We  mean 
not  to  dissolve  that  union  which  has  so  long  and  so 
happily  subsisted  between  us,  and  which  we  sincerely 
wish  to  see  restored.  Necessity  has  not  yet  driven  us 
into  that  desperate  measure."  Wonderfully  eloquent 
was  that  little  word  "  yet  "!  The  threat  of  all  that  was 
to  happen  next  year  was  latent  in  it.  'The  current  of 
feeling  was  moving  rapidly  just  then.  Two  months 
later  Jefferson  wrote :  "  There  is  not  in  the  British 
empire  a  man  who  more  cordially  loves  a  union  with 
Great  Britain  than  I  do.  But  by  the  God  that  made 
me  I  will  cease  to  exist  before  I  yield  to  a  connection 
on  such  terms  as  the  British  Parliament  proposes ;  and 
in  this  I  think  I  speak  the  sentiments  of  America." 
Observe  the  historical  accuracy  of  this  wording.  It 
was  not  a  question  of  throwing  off  a  yoke,  but  of  re 
fusing  to  yield  to  a  connection  on  newfangled  and 
degrading  terms.  The  American  colonies  had  never 
been  under  a  yoke,  but  they  had  maintained  a  con 
nection  with  Great  Britain  in  which  their  legislative 
independence  had  until  within  the  last  ten  years  been 
virtually  recognized.  Now  they  were  asked  to  sur 
render  that  legislative  independence  and  come  under 
the  yoke  of  the  British  Parliament,  and  this,  said 
Jefferson,  they  would  never  consent  to  do.  The 
American  Revolution  was  essentially  conservative.  It 


154  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

was  fought  not  so  much  to  gain  new  liberties  as  to 
preserve  old  ones.  It  was  the  British  in  this  case  that 
were  the  innovators,  and  the  Americans  that  were  the 
conservatives.  This  is  the  true  historical  light  in 
which  to  study  our  Revolution,  and  so  this  large- 
minded  young  student  of  Bracton  and  Coke  under 
stood  it.  Because  in  later  years  Jefferson  came  to  be 
the  head  of  a  party  which  sympathized  with  revolu 
tionary  France,  there  has  come  into  existence  a  leg 
endary  view  of  him  as  a  sort  of  French  doctrinaire 
politician  and  disciple  of  Rousseau.  Nothing  could  be 
more  grotesquely  absurd.  Jefferson  was  broad  enough 
to  learn  lessons  from  France,  but  he  was  no  French 
man  in  his  politics ;  and  we  shall  not  understand  him 
until  we  see  in  him  simply  the  earnest  but  cool-headed 
representative  of  the  rural  English  freeholders  that 
won  Magna  Charta  and  overthrew  the  usurpations  of 
the  Stuarts. 

It  was  chiefly  in  drawing  up  state  papers  that  Jeffer 
son  excelled  in  Congress,  and  herein  he  played  a  part 
for  the  whole  country  like  that  which  Samuel  Adams 
had  played  in  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts  in  the 
earlier  scenes  of  the  Revolution.  As  an  orator  Jeffer 
son  never  figured  at  all.  With  all  his  remarkable 
strength  and  vigour  his  voice  was  weak  and-  husky,  so 
that  he  found  it  hard  to  speak  in  public.  He  had 
besides  a  nervous  shrinking  from  hearing  himself  talk 
on  the  spur  of  the  moment  about  things  which  he 
knew  he  could  so  much  better  deal  with  sitting  at  his 
desk.  And  then  he  was  utterly  wanting  in  combative- 
ness.  However  he  might  evoke  contention  by  his 
writings,  its  actual  presence  was  something  from  which 
his  deliberate,  introspective,  and  delicately  poised 


THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  155 

nature  shrank.  He  was  in  no  wise  lacking  in  moral 
courage,  but  his  sympathies  were  so  broad  and  tender 
that  he  could  not  breathe  freely  in  an  atmosphere  of 
strife. 

For  such  a  nature  the  pen,  rather  than  the  tongue, 
is  the  ready  instrument.  As  a  wielder  of  that  weapon 
which  is  mightier  than  the  sword  Jefferson  was  now 
to  win  such  a  place  as  would  have  made  him  immortal, 
even  had  he  done  no  more.  In  June,  1776,  as  Richard 
Henry  Lee,  who  had  moved  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  was  called  home  to  Virginia  by  the  illness 
of  his  wife,  Jefferson  was  appointed  chairman  of  the 
committee  for  drawing  up  the  declaration.  The  draft 
as  made  by  him,  with  two  or  three  slight  changes 
interlined  by  Franklin  and  John  Adams,  was  substan 
tially  adopted  by  Congress.  There  were  no  interpola 
tions  worth  mentioning,  but  there  were  a  few  omissions, 
and  the  most  important  of  these  was  the  passage  which 
denounced  George  III.  for  upholding  the  slave-trade. 
The  antislavery  party  in  Virginia  was  quite  strong  at 
that  time.  In  1 769  the  legislature  had  enacted  a  law 
prohibiting  the  further  importation  of  negroes  to  be  sold 
into  slavery,  but  at  the  king's  command  the  governor 
had  vetoed  this  wholesome  act.  Jefferson  made  this 
the  occasion  of  a  denunciation  of  slavery  and  the  slave- 
trade,  but  inasmuch  as  New  England  shipmasters 
combined  with  South  Carolina  planters  in  carrying  on 
this  "  execrable  commerce,"  Congress  remembered  that 
people  who  live  in  glass  houses  should  not  begin  to 
throw  stones,  and  the  clause  was  struck  out. 

Some  expressions  in  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence  are  often  quoted  in  illustration  of  Jefferson's 
Gallicism.  It  begins  with  a  series  of  generaliza- 


156  THOMAS   JEFFERSON 

tions  :  "  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that 
all  men  are  created  equal,  that  they  are  endowed  by 
their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights,  that 
among  these  are  Life,  Liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
Happiness.  That  to  secure  these  rights,  Governments 
are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed,"  etc.  In  these 
sentences  we  may  plainly  see  the  result  of  French 
teaching.  It  would  be  very  difficult  to  find  in  the  files 
of  the  House  of  Commons  any  such  abstract  announce 
ments  of  "  self-evident  truths."  The  traditional  Eng 
lish  squire  would  appeal,  not  to  speculation,  but  to 
precedent.  He  would  defend  his  rights,  not  as  the 
natural  rights  of  men,  but  as  the  chartered  and  pre 
scriptive  rights  of  Englishmen.  This  was  because  the 
English  squire  had  a  goodly  body  of  prescriptive 
rights  which  were  worth  defending,  but  the  French 
peasant,  who  had  nothing  but  prescriptive  wrongs,  was 
obliged  to  fall  back  upon  the  natural  rights  of  man. 
In  attempting  to  generalize  about  liberty  and  govern 
ment,  the  French  philosophers  of  that  day  soon  got 
beyond  their  depth,  as  was  to  have  been  expected. 
Such  problems  cannot  be  solved  by  abstract  reason, 
but  the  attempt  to  rest  the  doctrines  of  civil  liberty 
upon  a  broad  theoretical  basis  was  praiseworthy. 
Jefferson  was  always  a  philosopher  as  well  as  a  states 
man,  and  he  was  quite  capable  of  learning  from 
Voltaire  and  Montesquieu,  Rousseau  and  Diderot,  who 
were  then  the  most  suggestive  and  stimulating  writers 
in  the  world.  It  pleased  him  to  give  a  neat  little 
philosophical  turn  to  the  beginning  of  his  great  docu 
ment,  but  after  this  exordium  he  goes  on  to  the  end 
in  the  practical  tone  of  the  English  squire.  The  king 


THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  157 

is  arraigned  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion  as  a  violator 
of  chartered  rights,  a  sovereign  who  by  breaking  the 
law  has  forfeited  the  allegiance  of  his  American  sub 
jects.  There  is  something  very  happy  in  the  skill  with 
which  any  explicit  mention  of  Parliament  is  avoided. 
"  He  has  combined  with  OTHERS  to  subject  us  to  a 
jurisdiction  foreign  to  our  constitution  and  unacknow 
ledged  by  our  laws  ;  giving  his  assent  to  their  acts  of 
pretended  legislation,"  etc.  It  is  only  in  this  way  that 
allusion  was  made  to  Parliament,  and  it  would  have 
been  impossible  to  state  with  more  consummate  skill 
the  American  view  of  the  position  based  upon  solid 
American  precedent.  In  every  clause  is  wrapped  up 
a  genuine  historic  pearl.  There  is  not  one  that 
appears  as  an  inference  from  the  philosophic  preamble, 
which  indeed  might  have  been  omitted  without  alter 
ing  the  practical  effect  of  the  document.  Nothing 
could  more  clearly  show  what  a  skin-deep  affair  Jeffer 
son's  Gallicism  really  was. 

In  the  summer  of  1776  Jefferson  was  reflected  to 
the  Continental  Congress,  but  declined  to  serve.  It 
was  with  him  as  with  many  other  public  men  at  that 
time.  Important  changes  were  going  on  in  the  several 
state  constitutions,  which  made  the  services  of  the 
ablest  men  needed  at  home.  In  Virginia  there  was  a 
great  work  to  be  done,  and  Jefferson  went  into  it  with 
wonderful  vigour,  ably  assisted  by  his  old  teacher, 
George  Wythe,  and  by  Colonel  George  Mason  and  the 
youthful  James  Madison.  It  was  on  the  7th  of  October, 
1776,  that  Jefferson  again  took  his  seat  in  the  Virginia 
legislature.  One  week  from  that  day  he  reported  a 
bill  abolishing  the  whole  system  of  entail.  That 
ancient  abuse  was  deeply  rooted  in  the  affections  of: 


158  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

many  of  the  old  families,  but  popular  feeling  must 
have  been  strongly  aroused  against  it,  for  Jefferson's 
bill  was  passed  within  three  weeks.  All  entailed 
estates  at  once  became  estates  in  fee  simple,  and  could 
be  bought  and  sold  or  attached  for  debt  like  other 
property.  It  was  a  sweeping  reform  and  won  for 
Jefferson  the  vindictive  hatred  of  many  of  the  aristo 
crats,  some  of  whom  were  cruel  enough  to  point  to  the 
death  of  his  only  son  as  a  divine  judgment  which  he 
had  brought  down  upon  himself  by  his  impious  disre 
gard  of  the  sacred  rights  of  family.  But  the  reformer 
did  not  stop  here.  He  next  assailed  primogeniture, 
and  presently  overthrew  it.  At  the  same  time,  as 
chairman  of  a  committee  for  revising  the  laws,  he 
showed,  in  one  important  respect,  a  wise  conservatism. 
Against  the  advice  of  his  able  colleague,  Edmund 
Pendleton,  he  insisted  upon  retaining  the  letter  of  the 
old  laws  wherever  possible,  because  the  precise  mean 
ing  of  every  phrase  had  been  determined  by  decisions 
of  the  courts,  and  to  introduce  new  terminology  is 
always  to  open  a  fresh  source  of  litigation.  With  all 
this  caution  he  did  very  much  toward  simplifying  the 
code.  Here  again  we  see,  not  the  a  priori  French 
iconoclast,  but  the  practical  and  liberal  English  squire. 
Other  reforms,  proposed  by  Jefferson  and  ultimately 
carried  out,  were  the  limitation  of  the  death  penalty  to 
the  two  crimes  of  murder  and  treason,  and  the  aboli 
tion  of  imprisonment  for  debt.  He  tried  to  introduce 
public  schools  like  those  of  New  England,  and  to 
have  a  public  library  established  in  Richmond ;  but 
the  state  of  society  in  Virginia  was  not  sufficiently 
advanced  in  this  direction  to  support  him.  He  was 
an  earnest  advocate  of  the  abolition  of  slavery,  but  he 


THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  159 

realized  that  there  was  no  hope  of  carrying  through  the 
legislature  any  measures  to  that  end.  He  did,  how 
ever,  in  1778  bring  in  a  bill  prohibiting  the  further 
importation  of  slaves  into  Virginia,  and  carried  it  with 
out  serious  opposition. 

The  relations  between  Church  and  State  also  claimed 
his  attention.  The  Episcopal  Church  was  then  estab 
lished  by  law  in  Virginia,  and  dissenters  were  taxed  to 
support  it.  Besides  there  were  many  heavy  penalties 
attached  to  nonconformity  ;  a  man  convicted  of  heresy 
might  be  deprived  of  the  custody  of  his  children. 
Jefferson's  own  views  of  the  relations  between  govern 
ment  and  religion  are  expressed  in  the  following 
remarkable  passage  from  his  "  Notes  on  Virginia." 
Opinion,  he  says,  is  something  with  which  govern 
ment  has  no  business  to  meddle ;  it  is  quite  beyond 
its  legitimate  province.  "  It  does  me  no  injury  for  my 
neighbour  to  say  there  are  twenty  gods,  or  no  God.  It 
neither  picks  my  pocket  nor  breaks  my  leg.  ...  It 
is  error  alone  which  needs  the  support  of  government. 
Truth  can  stand  by  itself.  Subject  opinion  to  coer 
cion,  and  whom  will  you  make  your  inquisitors? 
Fallible  men,  governed  by  bad  passions,  by  private  as 
well  as  public  reasons.  And  why  subject  it  to  coer 
cion  ?  Difference  of  opinion  is  advantageous  to  reli 
gion.  The  several  sects  perform  the  office  of  censor 
morum  over  each  other.  Is  uniformity  attainable  ? 
Millions  of  innocent  men,  women,  and  children,  since 
the  introduction  of  Christianity,  have  been  burnt, 
tortured,  fined,  imprisoned ;  yet  we  have  not  advanced 
one  inch  toward  uniformity.  Let  us  reflect  that  the 
earth  is  inhabited  by  thousands  of  millions  of  people ; 
that  these  profess  probably  a  thousand  different  sys- 


160  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

temsof  religion;  that  ours  is  but  one  of  that  thousand; 
that  if  there  be  but  one  right,  and  ours  that  one,  we 
should  wish  to  see  the  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
wandering  sects  gathered  into  the  fold  of  truth.  But 
against  such  a  majority  we  cannot  effect  this  by  force. 
Reason  and  persuasion  are  the  only  practicable  instru 
ments.  To  make  way  for  these,  free  inquiry  must  be 
indulged ;  and  how  can  we  wish  others  to  indulge  it, 
while  we  refuse  it  ourselves  ?  "  These  few  pithy  sen 
tences  have  had  no  little  influence  upon  American 
history.  For  half  a  century  they  furnished  the  argu 
ments  for  the  liberal-minded  men  who,  by  dint  of  per 
sistent  effort,  succeeded  in  finally  divorcing  Church 
from  State  in  all  parts  of  our  Union.  For  holding 
such  views  Jefferson  was  regarded  by  many  people  as 
an  infidel ;  in  our  time  he  would  be  more  likely  to  be 
classed  as  a  liberal  Christian.  The  general  sentiment 
of  the  churches  has  made  remarkable  progress  toward 
his  position,  though  it  would  be  too  much  to  say  that 
it  has  yet  fully  reached  it.  In  most  matters  Jefferson's 
face  was  set  toward  the  future;  in  this  he  was  clearly 
in  advance  of  his  age,  and  it  was  a  notable  instance  of 
his  power  over  men  that  after  only  nine  years  of 
strenuous  debate  his  views  should  have  become  incor 
porated  in  the  legislation  of  Virginia.  In  winning 
the  victory  he  was  greatly  aided  by  the  disfavour  into 
which  the  Established  Church  had  fallen  in  that  state 
because  of  the  lowered  character  of  its  clergy,  and  the 
extreme  Toryism  of  their  politics.  The  credit  for  the 
victory,  moreover,  must  be  divided  between  Jefferson 
and  Madison,  whose  assistance,  always  very  valuable, 
was  here  especially  powerful. 

In  these  years  Jefferson's  industry  was  prodigious. 


THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  l6l 

His  work  on  legislative  committees  was  enough  to 
tax  the  stoutest  nerves,  yet  he  found  time  for  his  gar 
dening  and  his  scientific  studies,  and  thanked  the  Lord 
for  the  thoroughness  of  the  early  training  which  en 
abled  him  to  solace  himself  in  the  intervals  of  hard 
work  by  reading  Homer  in  the  original.  Such  strong 
natures  find  relaxation  and  rest  in  what  to  ordinary 
mortals  is  painful  drudgery.  His  Greek  and  his 
mathematics  were  a  relief  to  him,  and  of  course  he 
worked  all  the  better  for  them,  as  well  as  for  his  farm 
ing  and  his  hunting  and  his  violin.  His  tastes  were 
all  wholesome,  pure,  and  refining ;  his  motives  were 
disinterested  and  lofty ;  and  under  that  sweet,  placid 
surface  his  energy  was  like  a  consuming  fire.  Seldom 
has  a  man  so  stamped  his  personality  upon  a  com 
munity  as  Jefferson  in  these  few  years  upon  Virginia, 
and  thus  indirectly  and  in  manifold  ramifications  upon 
the  federal  nation  in  which  Virginia  was  for  nearly 
half  a  century  more  to  be  the  leading  state.  The  code 
of  Virginia,  when  he  had  done  with  it,  might  almost 
have  been  called  the  Code  Jefferson.  Pity  that  his 
influence,  reenforced  by  that  of  Washington  and  Madi 
son,  Wythe  and  Mason,  could  not  then  have  removed 
her  from  the  list  of  slave  states  !  Every  Virginian  to 
day  must  confess  that  that  was  a  pity.  But  Jefferson 
did  all  that  it  was  in  human  strength  to  do.  To  the 
end  of  his  days  he  mourned  over  negro  slavery,  and 
saw  in  it  the  rock  upon  which  the  ship  of  state  might 
break  into  pieces  and  founder.  "  I  tremble  for  my 
country,"  said  he,  "  when  I  think  of  the  negro  and 
know  that  God  is  just."  All  the  agony  that  creased 
its  furrows  upon  the  brow  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
foretold  in  those  solemn  words. 


1 62  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

The  work  done  by  Jefferson  in  Virginia  was  to  some 
extent  imitated  in  other  states,  not  only  in  its  general 
spirit  but  often  in  details.  One  step  in  his  warfare 
with  the  old  Tory  families  intrenched  about  Williams- 
burg  was  the  removal  of  the  state  capital  to  the  village 
of  Richmond,  which  he  accomplished  in  spite  of  bitter 
opposition.  For  Virginia  this  turned  out  to  be  a  wise 
policy,  but  it  is  curious  to  see  how  generally  it  was 
imitated,  apparently  through  a  dread  and  a  jealousy 
felt  by  the  bucolic  democracy  toward  cities  and  city 
people.  Thus  our  modern  capitals  are  not  New  York, 
but  Albany;  not  Philadelphia,  but  Harrisburg;  not 
Milwaukee,  but  Madison ;  not  St.  Louis,  but  Jefferson 
City;  not  New  Orleans,  but  Baton  Rouge,  and  so  on 
through  the  majority  of  the  states.  In  like  manner, 
in  1 786,  the  Shays  party  wished  to  remove  the  govern 
ment  of  Massachusetts  from  Boston  to  some  inland 
village. 

Another  measure  which  Jefferson  introduced  in 
Virginia,  in  1776,  and  which  has  been  generally  imi 
tated,  was  the  provision  for  admitting  foreigners  to 
citizenship  after  a  residence  of  two  years  and  a  decla 
ration  of  intention  to  live  in  the  state.  This  policy, 
when  first  introduced,  was  unquestionably  sound,  and 
has  contributed  powerfully  to  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
United  States  in  population  and  in  wealth.  It  has 
brought,  moreover,  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  is 
supposed  in  much  of  the  current  talk  upon  this  sub 
ject,  an  excellent  class  of  immigrants  containing  the 
more  energetic  and  adventuresome  elements  in  the 
middle  and  lower  strata  of  European  society.  Circum 
stances,  nevertheless,  that  could  not  have  been  fore 
seen  a  century  ago  have  surrounded  it  with  dangers. 


THE    CONSERVATIVE    REFORMER  163 

Cheapness  and  ease  of  travel  have  gone  far  toward 
making  our  country  the  dumping-ground  for  a  much 
worse  class  of  immigrants  from  all  quarters,  so  that  it 
becomes  a  serious  question  whether  we  can  assimilate 
them  and  teach  them  American  political  ideas  with 
sufficient  rapidity.  Jefferson's  plan  of  easy  naturaliza 
tion  was  admirable  in  1776,  but  in  our  time  it  stands 
in  need  of  amendment  and  restriction. 

In  1779  Jefferson  was  chosen  governor  of  Virginia, 
but  he  declined  a  renomination  in  1781,  and  returned 
to  the  legislature.  It  was  while  he  was  governor  that 
Lord  Cornwallis  invaded  the  state ;  the  legislature, 
which  for  security  had  assembled  at  Charlottesville, 
was  broken  up  in  one  of  Tarleton's  raids,  and  Jefferson 
barely  escaped  capture  in  his  own  house  at  Monticello. 
His  political  enemies  afterward  twitted  him  with  run 
ning  away,  but  I  never  heard  of  any  man  except  Don 
Diego  Garcia,  enshrined  in  the  inimitable  pages  of 
Cervantes,  who  undertook  to  fight  single-handed 
against  a  whole  army.  In  1782  Mrs.  Jefferson  died, 
after  having  been  for  some  years  in  very  poor  health. 
For  many  weeks  after  this  bereavement  Jefferson's 
keen  interest  in  life  was  quenched.  He  could  do  no 
work,  but  spent  his  days  in  wandering  through  the 
woods  absorbed  in  grief.  Of  his  six  children,  only  two 
daughters  lived  to  grow  up,  but  he  had  long  ago 
brought  home  the  six  orphan  children  of  his  brother- 
in-law,  Dabney  Carr,  and  reared  them  with  tenderest 
care.  In  his  busiest  and  most  anxious  times  he  never 
failed  to  devote  part  of  his  attention,  most  conscien 
tiously  and  methodically,  to  their  education. 

In  1783  he  was  returned  to  Congress  in  time  to 
take  part  in  ratifying  the  treaty  of  peace.  He  assisted 


1 64  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

Gouverneur  Morris  in  devising  our  decimal  currency, 
and  suggested  the  dollar  as  the  unit.  He  handed  to 
Congress  the  deed  of  Virginia  ceding  the  Northwestern 
Territory  to  the  United  States;  and  he  drew  up  the 
Ordinance  of  1 784,  in  which  he  endeavoured  to  intro 
duce  the  principle  of  prohibiting  all  extension  of 
slavery  into  the  national  domain,  the  principle  upon 
which  the  present  Republican  party  was  founded  just 
seventy  years  later.  If  Jefferson  could  have  established 
this  principle  in  1 784,  it  would  have  altered  the  whole 
course  of  American  history.  As  it  is,  much  credit 
must  be  given  to  his  initiative  in  leading  to  the  result 
which  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787  prohibited  slavery 
north  of  the  Ohio  River.  In  May,  1784,  Jefferson's 
legislative  work,  so  noble  and  so  fruitful,  came  to  an 
end.  He  left  Congress  and  was  appointed  com 
missioner  to  aid  Franklin  and  John  Adams  in  negoti 
ating  commercial  treaties  with  European  nations. 
He  arrived  in  Paris  in  August,  1784.  In  the  following 
spring  the  commission  was  broken  up,  Adams  was 
appointed  minister  to  Great  Britain,  Franklin  came 
home,  and  Jefferson  was  appointed  minister  to  France. 
It  has  been  said  that  "  his  first  diplomatic  move  was 
a  bon  mot,  and  therefore  in  France  a  success.  '  You 
replace  M.  Franklin,  I  hear,'  remarked  the  Count  de 
Vergennes  at  an  interview.  '  I  succeed  him,  your  Excel 
lency,'  he  replied  promptly ;  'no  one  can  rep  lace him.'"1 
The  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
well  received  in  Paris.  His  book  entitled,  "  Notes  on 
Virginia,"  published  about  this  time,  was  widely  read 
and  greatly  admired.  He  soon  became  a  kind  of 
oracle  for  literary  men  and  political  theorizers  to  con- 

1  Rosenthal,  "  America  and  France,"  p.  128. 


THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  165 

suit.  To-day  it  is  M.  Demeunier  who  seeks  help  in 
preparing  his  articles  on  political  economy  for  the 
"Encyclopedic  Methodique?  To-morrow  it  is  M.  Soules 
who  is  writing  in  four  volumes  a  history  of  the  Ameri 
can  war  and  comes  for  advice.  Counsel  on  still  more 
pressing  subjects  was  soon  called  for.  The  four  years 
of  Jefferson's  sojourn  in  Paris  were  of  surpassing 
interest,  for  they  ended  in  the  outbreak  of  the  great 
Revolution.  Jefferson's  intimacy  with  Lafayette 
brought  him  much  into  the  society  of  the  men  with 
whom  he  most  sympathized,  the  reasonable  and  mod 
erate  reformers,  such  as  Barnave,  Rabant  de  Saint 
Etienne,  Duport,  Mounier,  and  others,  who  were  often 
gathered  around  his  hospitable  dinner  table.  When 
the  States  General  were  assembled,  he  used  to  go  every 
day  to  Versailles  to  watch  the  proceedings.  On  the 
9th  of  July,  1789,  the  British  ambassador,  the  Duke 
of  Dorset,  wrote  to  Mr.  Pitt  that  "  Mr.  Jefferson,  the 
American  minister  at  this  court,  has  been  a  great  deal 
consulted  by  the  principal  leaders  of  the  Tiers  Etat ; 
and  I  have  great  reason  to  think  that  it  was  owing  to 
his  advice  that  that  order  called  itself  L"  Assembles 
Nationals"  However  this  may  be,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  his  advice  was  often  sought.  The  most  notable 
instance  was  when  the  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux,  as 
chairman  of  a  committee  of  the  assembly  for  sketch 
ing  the  plan  of  a  constitution  for  France,  went  so  far 
as  to  invite  him  "  to  attend  and  assist  at  their  delibera 
tions."  But  Jefferson  did  not  regard  such  action  as 
becoming  in  a  foreign  minister,  and  accordingly  he 
declined  the  invitation.  In  September,  1789,  before 
the  furious  phase  of  the  Revolution  had  begun,  he 
returned  to  America. 


1 66  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

The  experience  of  these  four  years,  aided  by  the 
general  soundness  of  his  political  philosophy,  enabled 
Jefferson  to  take  a  much  more  just  view  of  the  French 
Revolution  than  was  taken  by  Englishmen  of  nearly 
all  parties  and  by  the  Federalists  in  America.  In  its 
earlier  stages  the  Whigs  in  England  and  almost  every 
body  in  America  viewed  the  French  Revolution  with 
earnest  sympathy ;  but  when  its  fierce  excesses  came 
there  was  a  violent  reaction.  Every  one  remembers 
how  Burke,  in  his  "  Letters  on  a  Regicide  Peace," 
quite  lost  his  head  and  raved.  He  could  think  of  no 
better  name  for  France  than  "  cannibal  castle,"  and 
wanted  the  revolutionary  party  summarily  annihilated 
by  an  unrelenting  policy  of  blood  and  iron.  Such  a 
reaction  of  feeling  was  natural  enough.  It  seized 
upon  the  Federalists  in  America,  and  led  such  men  as 
Hamilton  to  entertain  absurd  fears  of  the  wild  orgies 
of  spoliation  likely  to  ensue  upon  the  victory  of  de 
mocracy  in  our  country.  The  Federalists'  view  has 
survived  down  to  our  own  time.  In  talking  about  the 
French  Revolution  people  are  apt  to  think  only  of 
the  guillotine  and  its  innocent  victims,  the  saintlike 
Princess  Elizabeth,  the  sprightly  Madame  Roland, 
Vergniaud,  the  brilliant  orator,  Malesherbes,  the 
noble  statesman,  Lavoisier,  the  great  chemist,  Andre 
Chenier,  the  sweet  poet,  and  so  many  others.  In 
contemplating  such  sad  cases  it  is  too  easy  to  forget 
the  ineffable  horrors,  the  pestilent  foulness,  of  the  old 
regime  that  was  forever  swept  away,  the  enlightened 
and  wholesome  legislation  that  began  in  1789,  and 
the  rapid  and  powerful  inoculation  of  the  peoples  of 
Europe  with  ideas  that  have  since  borne  fruit  in  a 
restored  Hungary,  a  renovated  Germany  and  Italy, 


THE   CONSERVATIVE    REFORMER  167 

and  increased  comfort  and  happiness  everywhere.  It 
is  too  easy  to  forget  that  the  atrocities  of  the  Reign  of 
Terror  were  the  result  of  a  temporary  destruction  of 
confidence  among  the  members  of  the  community, 
and  that  for  this  destruction  of  confidence  the  royalist 
emigres,  in  seeking  foreign  military  aid  against  their 
own  country,  were  chiefly  to  blame.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Jefferson,  without  approving  the  excesses 
of  the  Jacobins,  understood  the  purport  of  events  in 
France  more  correctly  and  estimated  them  more  fairly 
than  most  of  his  American  contemporaries.  Of  course 
this  gave  his  political  enemies  a  chance  to  call  him  a 
Jacobin,  and  has  led  those  people  of  our  own  time 
to  whom  he  is  little  more  than  a  name  to  suppose 
that  he  obtained  his  theory  of  the  government  from 
Rousseau ! 

When  Jefferson  came  home,  in  the  autumn  of  1 789, 
it  was  with  the  intention  of  soon  returning  to  France 
to  watch  the  progress  of  events ;  but  when  he  arrived 
at  Monticello,  two  days  before  Christmas,  he  found 
awaiting  him  an  invitation  from  President  Washing 
ton  to  the  position  of  Secretary  of  State,  and  after  some 
hesitation,  being  strongly  urged  by  Washington  and 
Madison,  he  accepted  it.  In  March,  1 790,  he  took  his 
place  in  the  cabinet ;  during  the  preceding  year  it 
had  been  temporarily  occupied  by  John  Jay,  whom 
Washington  was  about  to  make  chief  justice.  As  the 
most  crying  need  of  the  new  government  was  revenue, 
the  work  of  organization  had  been  carried  on  mainly 
by  Hamilton  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

It  has  often  been  said  that  Washington,  in  choosing 
for  the  chief  places  in  his  cabinet  two  men  so  antago 
nistic  to  each  other  as  Hamilton  and  Jefferson,  was 


1 68  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

actuated  by  a  desire  to  represent  both  parties  and 
have  a  non-partisan  government.  On  all  sides  Wash 
ington  has  been  praised  for  this  breadth  of  view,  al 
though  it  has  sometimes  been  suggested  that  it  was 
not  characterized  by  his  customary  sagacity.  It  seems 
to  me  that  this  statement  is  wanting  in  historical 
accuracy,  as  it  overlooks  the  fact  that  it  was  during 
Washington's  administration,  and  not  before  it,  that 
the  definitive  divisions  between  political  parties  grew 
up.  It  is  true  that  Jefferson  represented  the  type  of 
opinions  likely  to  prevail  among  the  agricultural  so 
cieties  of  the  Southern  states,  while  Hamilton  repre 
sented  the  type  of  opinions  likely  to  prevail  among 
the  commercial  and  manufacturing  centres  in  the 
Northern  states ;  but  it  is  hardly  correct  to  say  that 
in  1789  these  two  men  belonged  to  opposite  political 
parties.  The  earliest  division  of  American  parties  on 
a  national  scale  began  in  the  autumn  of  1787,  when 
the  federal  Constitution  was  submitted  to  the  peo 
ple  of  the  thirteen  states  for  their  approval.  Then 
the  friends  of  the  Constitution  were  known  as  Fed 
eralists,  and  its  enemies  were  called  Anti-federalists. 
At  that  time  Hamilton  and  Madison  were  foremost 
among  the  Federalists,  while  George  Clinton  and 
Patrick  Henry  were  the  foremost  Anti-federalists. 
Samuel  Adams  has  sometimes  been  spoken  of  as 
an  Anti-federalist,  but  this  is  utterly  and  grossly  in 
accurate.  Samuel  Adams  was  slow  in  coming  to  a 
final  decision,  but  when  he  made  up  his  mind,  it  was 
in  favour  of  the  Constitution  with  such  amendments 
as  to  be  equivalent  to  a  bill  of  rights,  —  such  amend 
ments  as  the  first  ten,  which  were  soon  afterward 
annexed  to  that  instrument.  When  he  decided  in 


THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  169 

this  way,  his  vast  influence  secured  the  ratification 
of  the  Constitution  in  Massachusetts  by  a  very  narrow 
majority.  But  for  this  attitude  of  Samuel  Adams, 
Massachusetts  would  probably  have  rejected  the  Con 
stitution,  and  that  would  have  thrown  everything  back 
into  chaos.  During  that  momentous  year,  1788,  Jeffer 
son  was  in  France.  What  would  have  been  his  atti 
tude  if  he  had  been  at  home  and  taken  part  in  the 
Virginia  convention?  Unquestionably  it  would  have 
been  like  that  of  Samuel  Adams,  for  he  says  as  much 
in  his  letters.  He  declared  that  he  was  much  more  a 
Federalist  than  an  Anti-federalist,  and  the  only  faults 
he  had  to  find  with  the  Constitution  were  that  it  did 
not  include  a  bill  of  rights,  and  that  it  did  not  pro 
vide  against  the  indefinite  reeligibility  of  the  President, 
and  thus  prevent  the  presidency  from  lapsing  into 
something  like  an  elective  monarchy.  The  first  of 
those  faults  was  soon  corrected  by  the  first  ten  amend 
ments,  which  made  a  very  effective  bill  of  rights ; 
the  second  was  corrected  by  the  precedent  set  by 
Washington  and  confirmed  by  Jefferson  himself,  in 
refusing  to  serve  as  President  after  two  terms.  It  is 
thus  evident  that  Jefferson,  on  his  return  to  America, 
was  practically  a  Federalist,  as  party  lines  were  at 
that  moment  drawn. 

But  during  Washington's  administration  the  Fed 
eralists,  led  by  Hamilton,  having  been  given  an  inch 
by  these  state  conventions  that  grudgingly  ratified  the 
Constitution,  were  naturally  inclined,  in  the  enthusiasm 
of  their  triumph,  to  claim  an  ell.  The  swiftly  and 
radically  centralizing  measures  of  Hamilton  soon  car 
ried  the  Federalists  onward  to  a  new  position,  so  that 
those  who  agreed  with  them  in  1789  had  come  to 


1 70  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

dissent  from  them  in  1793.  It  was  thus  in  Washing 
ton's  first  administration  that  the  seeds  of  all  party 
differences  hereafter  to  bear  fruit  in  America  were 
sown  and  sedulously  nurtured.  All  American  history 
has  since  run  along  the  lines  marked  out  by  the 
antagonism  between  Jefferson  and  Hamilton.  Our 
history  is  sometimes  charged  with  lack  of  picturesque- 
ness  because  it  does  not  deal  with  the  belted  knight 
and  the  moated  grange.  But  to  one  who  considers 
the  moral  import  of  events,  it  is  hard  to  see  how  any 
thing  can  be  more  picturesque  than  the  spectacle  of 
these  two  giant  antagonists,  contending  for  political 
measures  which  were  so  profoundly  to  affect  the  lives 
of  millions  of  human  beings  yet  unborn.  Coleridge 
once  said,  with  as  fair  an  approximation  to  truth  as  is 
likely  to  be  reached  in  such  sweeping  statements,  that 
in  philosophy  all  men  must  be  Aristotelians  or  Pla- 
tonists.  So  it  may  be  said  that  in  American  politics 
all  men  must  be  disciples  either  of  Jefferson  or  of 
Hamilton.  But  these  two  statesmen  represented  prin 
ciples  that  go  beyond  the  limits  of  American  history, 
principles  that  have  found  their  application  in  the  his 
tory  of  all  countries  and  will  continue  to  do  so.  Some 
times  a  broad  comparison  helps  our  understanding  of 
particular  cases.  Indeed,  our  understanding  of  par 
ticular  cases  cannot  fail  to  be  helped  by  a  broad  com 
parison,  if  it  is  correctly  made.  Suppose,  then,  we 
compare  for  a  moment  the  general  drift  of  American 
history  with  that  of  British  history.  We  are  tolerably 
familiar  with  the  differences  between  Liberals  and 
Tories  in  the  mother  country.  Let  us  see  if  we  can 
compare  the  two  great  American  parties  with  these, 
and  decide  which  are  the  Liberals  and  which  the 


THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  171 

Tories ;  and  in  doing  this,  let  us  divest  ourselves  for 
the  moment  of  any  prejudices  which  we  may  be  in  the 
habit  of  cherishing  against  either  Liberals  or  Tories. 

In  England  the  chief  characteristic  of  the  Tory 
party  has  been  its  support  of  measures  which  tend 
to  strengthen  the  crown  and  the  aristocracy,  and  to 
enlarge  and  tighten  the  control  exercised  by  the 
community  over  its  individual  members.  The  chief 
characteristic  of  the  Liberal  party  has  been  its  sup 
port  of  measures  which  tend  to  weaken  the  crown 
and  the  aristocracy,  and  to  diminish  and  relax  the 
control  exercised  by  the  community  over  its  individ 
ual  members.  In  all  times  and  countries  there  has 
been  such  a  division  between  parties,  and  in  the 
nature  of  things  it  is  the  only  sound  and  abiding 
principle  of  division.  Ephemeral  parties  rise  and 
fall  over  special  questions  of  temporary  importance, 
but  this  grand  division  endureth  forever.  Where- 
ever  there  are  communities  of  men,  a  certain  por 
tion  of  the  community  is  marked  off,  in  one  way 
or  another,  to  exercise  authority  over  the  whole 
and  perform  the  various  functions  of  government. 
The  question  always  is  how  much  authority  shall 
this  governing  portion  of  the  community  be  allowed 
to  exercise,  to  how  great  an  extent  shall  it  be  per 
mitted  to  interfere  with  private  affairs,  to  take 
people's  money  in  the  shape  of  taxes,  whether  direct 
or  indirect,  and  in  other  ways  to  curb  or  restrict 
the  freedom  of  individuals.  All  people  agree  that 
government  must  have  some  such  powers,  or  else 
human  society  would  be  resolved  into  a  chaos  in 
which  every  man's  hand  would  be  raised  against 
every  other  man.  The  political  question  is  as  to  how 


172  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

much  power  government  shall  be  permitted  to  exer 
cise.  Where  shall  the  line  be  drawn  beyond  which 
the  governing  body  shall  not  be  allowed  to  go  ? 
This  has  been  the  fundamental  question  among  all 
peoples  in  all  lands,  and  it  is  the  various  answers 
to  this  question  that  have  made  all  the  differences  in 
the  success  or  the  failure  of  different  phases  of  civil 
ization,  —  all  the  differences  between  the  American 
citizen  and  the  Asiatic  coolie.  We  might  thus  take 
any  nation  that  has  ever  existed  for  comparison  with 
the  United  States,  but  we  choose  to  take  England, 
because  there  the  will  of  the  people  has  in  all  ages 
been  able  to  assert  itself.  In  countries  where  the 
voice  of  the  people  has  been  for  a  long  time  silenced, 
as  in  France  under  the  old  regime  and  in  Russia, 
we  naturally  find  parties  coming  up,  like  the  Jacobins 
and  the  Anarchists,  who  would  fain  destroy  all  gov 
ernment  and  send  us  back  to  savagery ;  for  in  politics 
as  well  as  in  physics  it  may  be  said  that  action  and 
reaction  are  equal  and  in  opposite  directions.  But 
in  England,  just  because  the  people  have  always  been 
able  to  find  their  voice  and  use  it,  things  have  pro 
ceeded  normally,  in  a  quiet  and  slow  development, 
like  the  unfolding  of  a  flower;  and  so  the  differences 
between  parties  have  never  assumed  a  radically  ex 
plosive  form,  but  have  taken  the  shape  with  which  we 
are  familiar  as  the  differences  between  Liberals  and 
Tories. 

Now  if  we  compare  parties  in  America  with  parties 
in  England,  unquestionably  the  Jeffersonians  corre 
spond  to  the  Liberals  and  the  Hamiltonians  to  the 
Tories.  It  is,  on  the  whole,  the  former  who  wish  to 
restrict,  and  the  latter  who  wish  to  enlarge,  the  powers 


THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  173 

of  government.  But  this  is  an  incomplete  view  of  the 
matter.  In  England,  for  the  last  three  centuries,  politi 
cal  progress  has  consisted  in  limiting  more  and  more 
the  power  of  the  crown  and  in  admitting  a  larger  and 
larger  proportion  of  the  people  to  a  share  in  the  gov 
ernment,  and  as  the  Tories  have  generally  resisted 
these  progressive  measures,  they  have  come  to  be 
somewhat  discredited  in  the  eyes  of  Americans.  It 
is  not  my  purpose,  however,  to  attach  any  stigma  to 
the  followers  of  Hamilton,  to  the  Federalists  of  1800, 
to  the  Whigs  of  1840,  or  to  the  Republicans  of  1880, 
in  comparing  them  to  the  Tories.  Not  only  has  Tory 
ism  its  uses  in  all  ages  of  English  history,  but  there 
was  once  a  time  when  it  was  desirable  to  strengthen 
the  crown,  to  increase  the  powers  of  the  central  gov 
ernment,  and  to  subordinate  the  local  governments  as 
represented  by  the  great  vassals.  That  was  the  time 
when  the  English  nationality  was  in  process  of  forma 
tion,  when  the  chief  desideratum  was  to  get  a  united 
and  orderly  England.  In  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries  it  was  a  good  thing  to  have  such  masterful 
kings  as  William  the  Conqueror,  and  Henry  I.,  and 
Henry  II.  Even  so  late  as  the  fifteenth  century  there 
was  a  very  good  side  to  the  overthrow  of  the  old 
baronage  and  the  tightening  of  the  grip  of  govern 
ment  under  Henry  VII.  National  unity  is  something 
that  no  people  can  afford  to  dispense  with,  for  the 
alternative  is  chaos. 

Now  during  the  past  hundred  years  the  American 
nationality  has  been  in  process  of  formation,  and  it 
has  been  desirable  to  keep  the  central  government 
strong  enough  to  preserve  the  Union.  That  has,  in 
deed,  been  the  paramount  necessity,  and  therefore 


174  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

the  Hamiltonian  theory  of  strong  government  has 
been  of  great  value.  We  could  not  have  got  along 
without  it.  But  it  is  a  theory  that  needs  to  be  applied 
with  care  and  held  in  check  with  a  curb  rein.  Other 
wise  it  is  sure  to  end  in  class  legislation  and  plutoc 
racy,  and  the  reaction  shows  itself  in  labour  agitation, 
strikes,  and  anarchical  doctrines  among  the  classes  of 
people  that  feel  themselves  in  some  way  deprived  of 
their  fair  share  in  the  good  things  of  life. 

In  1798  the  Tory  character  of  Hamiltonian  federal 
ism  showed  itself  with  crude  frankness  in  the  alien 
and  sedition  acts.  At  that  time,  as  an  indirect  result 
of  the  feud  between  Hamilton  and  Adams,  Jefferson 
had  become  Vice-president  under  a  Federalist  Presi 
dent.  His  protest  against  the  abominable  alien  and 
sedition  acts  was  uttered  in  the  famous  resolutions  of 
Kentucky  and  Virginia,  which  seemed  to  tread  danger 
ously  near  the  confines  of  nullification.  To  avoid 
repetition  I  shall  reserve  what  I  have  to  say  about 
these  resolutions  for  my  lecture  on  Madison.1  By 
1800  the  lines  between  the  party  which  could  enact 
the  alien  and  sedition  laws  and  the  party  which  could 
approve  the  Virginia  resolutions  had  become  so 
sharply  drawn  that  the  presidential  canvass  was  as 
fierce  as  in  1860,  or  in  1876,  or  in  1884.  Just  as  a 
good  many  people  believed  some  years  ago  that  the 
election  of  Mr.  Cleveland  meant  the  assumption  of 
the  rebel  war  debt,  the  undoing  of  the  work  of  recon 
struction,  the  instantaneous  overthrow  of  the  tariff, 

1  In  this  affair  both  the  Hamiltonian  and  the  Jeffersonian  parties  showed 
their  weak  sides.  Against  the  excesses  of  a  federalism  which  had  lost 
its  temper,  the  protest  of  republicanism  was  so  energetic  as  to  savour,  for 
the  moment,  of  political  disintegration. 


THE    CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  175 

and  all  manner  of  vague  horror,  so  in  1800  the  Feder 
alists  believed  that  the  election  of  Mr.  Jefferson  meant 
the  dissolution  of  the  Union  and  the  importation  into 
America  of  all  the  monstrous  notions  of  French 
Jacobinism.  And  just  as  after  the  election  of  1876 
some  good  people  were  so  afraid  of  what  Mr.  Tilden 
might  do  that  they  were  ready  to  sanction  the  shabby 
trick  that  kept  him  out  of  the  place  to  which  he  had 
been  chosen,  so  after  the  election  of  1800  there  were 
worthy  people  whose  ideas  of  right  and  wrong  became 
so  confused  that,  rather  than  see  the  great  and  pure 
statesman,  Thomas  Jefferson,  in  the  White  House,  they 
were  ready  to  surrender  the  government  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  such  a  scoundrel  as  Aaron  Burr.  It  is 
wonderful  how  men  lose  their  heads  at  such  times. 
One  would  suppose  that  they  were  electing,  not  a  con 
stitutional  magistrate,  but,  shall  we  say,  a  Russian 
Czar?  No,  for  not  even  a  czar  can  go  far  in  working 
changes  in  government  at  his  own  sweet  will.  They 
seem  rather  to  argue  as  if  a  President  were  like  the 
king  in  a  fairy  tale,  with  unlimited  capacity  for  evil. 
New  England  clergymen  entertained  a  grotesque  con 
ception  of  Jefferson  as  a  French  atheist,  and  I  have 
heard  my  grandmother  tell  how  old  ladies  in  Connecti 
cut,  at  the  news  of  his  election,  hid  their  family  Bibles 
because  it  was  supposed  that  his  very  first  official  act, 
perhaps  even  before  announcing  his  cabinet,  would  be 
to  issue  a  ukase  ordering  all  copies  of  the  sacred 
volume  throughout  the  country  to  be  seized  and 
burned. 

When  people  get  into  such  a  state  of  mind  the 
only  thing  that  can  cure  them  is  an  object  lesson. 
Mr.  Cleveland's  administration,  human  and  fallible, 


176  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

but  upright  and  able,  has  lately  furnished  us  with 
such  an  object  lesson.  In  the  first  eight  years  of  this 
century  the  presence  of  Mr.  Jefferson  at  the  head  of 
the  government  educated  the  American  people  in 
a  similar  way,  but  far  more  potently  in  that  especially 
plastic  and  formative  time.  As  a  political  leader  we 
have  hardly  seen  his  equal.  He  had  not  the  kind 
of  lofty  pugnacity  which  enabled  Hutchinson  to  win 
victories  in  the  teeth  of  popular  prejudice  and  clamour, 
but  he  had  that  sympathetic  insight  into  the  thoughts 
and  wishes  of  plain  common  people  which  Samuel 
Adams  had,  and  for  the  want  of  which  Hutchinson's 
career,  in  spite  of  his  great  powers  and  his  noble 
character,  was  ruined. 

A  man  of  such  sympathetic  insight  into  the  popu 
lar  mind  —  a  faculty  in  which  Hamilton  was  almost 
as  lacking  as  Hutchinson  —  was  just  the  man  that 
was  needed  at  the  head  of  our  government  in  the 
first  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Jefferson  was 
needed  at  the  helm  in  1800  as  much  as  Hamilton 
was  needed  in  1790.  He  never  could  have  done  the 
work  of  Hamilton  or  of  Madison.  They  were  men 
of  rare  constructive  genius ;  he  was  not.  But  when 
the  first  work  of  construction  had  been  done  and  the 
government  fairly  set  to  work,  Jefferson  was  just  the 
man  to  carry  it  along  quietly  and  smoothly  until  its 
success  passed  into  a  tradition  and  was  thus  assured. 
If  he  had  been  the  French  inconoclast  that  the 
Federalists  supposed  him  to  be,  he  could  not  have 
achieved  any  such  results.  But  his  career  in  the 
presidency,  like  his  earlier  career,  shows  him,  not  as 
a  Danton,  but  as  a  Walpole.  Instead  of  the  general 
overturning  which  the  Federalists  had  dreaded,  the 


THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  177 

administration  quietly  followed  the  lines  which  Ham 
ilton  had  laid  down.  In  other  words,  it  was  in  the 
hands  of  a  constitutional  magistrate  who  acquiesced 
in  the  decision  of  such  questions  by  the  will  of  the 
people.  Moreover,  as  now  wielding  the  administra 
tion  and  feeling  the  practical  merits  of  Hamilton's 
measures,  Jefferson  was  no  longer  so  ready  to  con 
demn  them.  In  the  most  important  act  of  his  presi 
dency  he  deserted  his  strict  constructionist  theories 
and  ventured  upon  an  exercise  of  power  as  bold  as 
Hamilton's  assumption  of  state  debts.  Napoleon  had 
lately  acquired  from  Spain  the  vast  territory  between 
the  Mississippi  River  and  the -crest  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains ;  on  the  eve  of  war  with  England,  he  knew 
that  this  territory  was  an  extremely  vulnerable  spot  in 
his  empire,  and  he  was  very  glad  to  surrender  it  for 
hard  cash.  Accordingly  President  Jefferson  bought 
it,  and  thus  at  a  cost  of  $15,000,000  more  than 
doubled  the  area  of  the  United  States  and  gave  to 
our  nation  its  imperial  dimensions.  The  Constitution 
had  not  provided  for  any  such  startling  exercise  of 
power.  Probably  the  federal  convention  had  not 
so  much  as  thought  of  such  a  thing.  What  is  more, 
this  acquisition  of  territory  reopened  the  question  as 
to  slavery,  which  the  framers  of  the  Constitution 
thought  they  had  closed  by  their  compromises.  By 
and  by  the  question  was  to  arise  as  to  what  was  to  be 
done  about  slavery  in  states  formed  from  the  Louisi 
ana  territory,  —  a  question  to  be  settled  only  by  civil 
war  and  the  abolition  of  slavery  altogether.  In  Jeffer 
son's  time  no  such  result  was  dreamed  of.  The  de 
sirableness  of  ousting  European  influence  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  River  was  very  great,  and 


I  78  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

the  purchase  was  so  generally  approved  that  Jefferson 
abandoned  his  half-formed  purpose  of  asking  Congress 
to  propose  a  constitutional  amendment  to  justify  him. 
Perhaps  it  was  not  needed.  A  quarter  of  a  century 
later  Chief  Justice  Marshall  laid  down  the  doctrine 
that  "the  Constitution  conferred  absolutely  on  the 
government  of  the  Union  the  power  of  making  war 
and  of  making  treaties ;  consequently  that  government 
possesses  the  power  of  acquiring  territory  either  by 
conquest  or  by  treaty." 1  In  the  time  of  Jefferson's 
presidency  this  would  have  been  called  loose  construc 
tion.  To  the  general  approval  of  the  Louisiana  pur 
chase  there  was  one  exception.  In  New  England 
some  people  feared  that  in  so  huge  a  nation  as  this 
portended,  their  own  corner  of  the  country  would  be 
reduced  to  insignificance.  The  uneasiness  continued 
until  after  the  second  war  with  England.  In  1811 
Josiah  Quincy,  afterward  president  of  Harvard,  de 
clared  in  a  fervent  speech  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  that  if  the  state  of  Louisiana,  the  first 
beyond  the  great  river,  should  be  admitted  into  the 
Union,  it  would  be  high  time  for  the  New  England 
states  to  secede  and  form  a  separate  confederacy. 

With  Jefferson's  strong  faith  in  the  teachableness 
of  the  great  mass  of  people  we  naturally  associate 
universal  suffrage,  for  his  influence  went  largely  in  this 
direction.  We  often  hear  people  say  that  the  experi 
ment  of  universal  suffrage  is  a  failure,  that  it  simply 

1  Extract  from  the  opinion  of  Chief  Justice  John  Marshall,  p.  542, 
i  Peters  (Sup.  Court  U.  S.)  Rep.,  The  American  Ins.  Co.  et  al.  v.  Carter, 
January  term,  1828.  The  case  was  argued  by  Mr.  Ogden  for  appellants, 
Mr.  Whipple  and  Mr.  Webster  for  Carter.  This  is  all  that  appears  in  the 
decision  touching  the  power  to  acquire  territory. 


THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  179 

results  in  the  sway  of  demagogues  who  marshal  at  the 
polls  their  hordes  of  bribed  or  petted  followers.  This 
is  no  doubt  very  bad.  It  is  a  serious  danger  against 
which  we  must  provide.  But  do  these  objectors  ever 
stop  to  think  how  much  worse  it  would  be  if  the 
demagogue,  instead  of  marshalling  his  creatures  at 
the  polls,  were  able  to  stand  up  and  inflame  their  pas 
sions  with  the  cry  that  in  this  country  they  have  no 
vote,  no  share  in  making  the  laws,  that  they  are  kept 
out  of  their  just  dues  by  an  upper  class  of  rich  men 
who  can  make  the  laws  ?  If  your  hod-carrier  was 
sulking  for  the  want  of  a  vote,  he  would  be  ten  times 
more  dangerous  than  any  so-called  friend  of  labour 
can  now  make  him.  As  it  is,  his  vote  does  not  teach 
him  much,  because  of  his  dull  mind  and  narrow  experi 
ence,  but  after  all,  it  gives  him  the  feeling  that  he  is  of 
some  account  in  the  world,  that  his  individuality  is  to 
some  extent  respected ;  and  this  is  unquestionably  one 
of  the  most  powerful  and  conservative  safeguards  of 
American  civilization.  In  point  of  fact,  our  political 
freedom  and  our  social  welfare  are  to-day  in  infinitely 
greater  peril  from  Pennsylvania's  iron-masters  and  the 
owners  of  silver  mines  in  Nevada  than  from  all  the 
ignorant  foreigners  that  have  flocked  to  us  from 
Europe.  Our  legacy  of  danger  for  this  generation 
was  bequeathed  us  by  Hamilton,  not  by  Jefferson. 

The  American  people  took  Jefferson  into  their 
hearts  as  they  have  never  taken  any  other  statesman 
until  Lincoln  in  these  latter  days.  His  influence  en 
dured  in  his  green  old  age  at  Monticello,  the  favoured 
spot  where  in  the  early  days,  when  American  inde 
pendence  had  hardly  been  thought  of,  he  used  to  sit 
under  the  trees  with  his  brilliant  young  friend  and 


l8o  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

brother-in-law,  Dabney  Carr,  and  chat  and  dream  over 
theories  of  government  and  power  over  men  and  the 
ways  in  which  it  asserted  itself.  The  first  term  of  his 
presidency  was  serene,  because  England  and  France 
were  just  at  that  moment  at  peace,  and  we  were  not 
called  upon  to  take  part  in  their  quarrel.  As  candi 
date  for  a  second  term  he  simply  swept  the  country. 
There  was  no  one  in  1804  who  dreaded  Jefferson.  In 
the  election  of  that  year  he  had  162  electoral  votes, 
while  his  Federalist  opponent,  Cotesworth  Pinckney, 
had  only  14.  Jefferson's  influence  had  become  so 
great  because  he  had  absorbed  all  the  strength  of  his 
adversary.  He  had  not  approved  of  Hamilton's  acts, 
but  he  knew  how  to  adopt  them  and  appropriate 
them,  just  as  Hamilton  had  adopted  and  appropriated 
Madison's  theory  of  the  Constitution.  Here  again  — 
if  I  may  say  it  once  more  —  we  see,  not  the  French 
iconoclast,  but  the  English  squire. 

Jefferson  died  on  the  4th  of  July,  1826,  at  Mon- 
ticello,  just  half  a  century  after  the  promulgation  of 
that  Declaration  of  Independence  which  he  had 
written,  and  John  Adams  had  most  powerfully  de 
fended  in  the  Continental  Congress.  In  the  bitter 
political  strife  between  1795  and  1800  Jefferson  and 
Adams  had  become  enemies ;  but  in  later  years  the 
enmity  had  subsided  as  old  party  strife  had  subsided. 
Jefferson  had  carried  the  day.  He  had  lived  long 
enough  to  see  the  fruition  of  his  work,  to  see  the 
American  people  in  full  sympathy  with  him,  and  to 
win  back  the  esteem  of  the  great  statesman,  John 
Adams,  from  whom  he  had  been  so  long  divided.  Could 
there  have  been  a  nobler  triumph  for  this  strong 
and  sweet  nature?  On  the  4th  of  July,  1826,  at  one 


THE   CONSERVATIVE   REFORMER  l8l 

o'clock  midday,  he  quietly  passed  away,  serene  in  death 
as  in  all  his  life.  Three  hours  before  on  that  same 
day,  at  his  home  in  Massachusetts,  John  Adams  died, 
and  just  before  the  last  breath  left  him  the  memories 
of  the  grand  old  times  when  Massachusetts  and  Vir 
ginia  stood  together  and  built  up  this  Union  flitted 
across  his  mind,  and  he  murmured,  "  Thomas  Jeffer 
son  still  lives." 


V 
JAMES    MADISON 

THE   CONSTRUCTIVE   STATESMAN 


JAMES   MADISON 

THE   CONSTRUCTIVE   STATESMAN 

IN  the  work  of  constructing  our  national  govern 
ment  and  putting  it  into  operation  there  were  five  men 
distinguished  above  all  others.  In  an  especial  sense 
they  deserve  to  be  called  the  five  founders  of  the 
American  Union.  Naming  them  chronologically,  in 
the  order  of  the  times  at  which  the  influence  of  each 
was  most  powerfully  felt,  they  come  as  follows :  George 
Washington,  James  Madison,  Alexander  Hamilton, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  and  John  Marshall.  But  for  Wash 
ington  it  is  very  doubtful  if  independence  would  have 
been  won,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  federal  Consti 
tution  would  not  have  been  adopted.  The  fact  that 
the  experiment  of  the  new  government  could  be  tried 
under  his  guidance  made  quite  enough  votes  for  it  to 
turn  the  scales  in  its  favour.  His  weight  of  authority 
was  also  needed  to  secure  the  adoption  of  Hamilton's 
measures  and  to  prevent  the  half-formed  nation  from 
being  drawn  into  the  vortex  of  European  war.  As  for 
Madison,  he  was  the  constructive  thinker  who  played 
the  foremost  part  among  the  men  who  made  the  Con 
stitution,  besides  contributing  powerfully  with  tongue 
and  pen  to  the  arguments  which  secured  its  ratifica 
tion.  In  this  work  of  advocacy  Hamilton  reenforced 
and  surpassed  Madison,  and  then  in  the  work  of  prac- 

185 


1 86  JAMES   MADISON 

tical  construction,  of  setting  the  new  government  into 
operation,  Hamilton,  with  his  financial  measures,  took 
the  lead.  But  the  boldness  of  Hamilton's  policy 
alarmed  many  people.  There  was  a  widespread  fear 
that  the  government  would  develop  into  some  kind 
of  a  despotism,  and  this  dread  seemed  presently  to  be 
justified  by  the  alien  and  sedition  laws.  Other  people 
were  equally  afraid  of  democracy,  because  in  France 
democracy  was  overturning  society  and  setting  up  the 
guillotine.  There  was  such  a  sad  want  of  public  con 
fidence  among  the  American  people  between  1 790  and 
1800,  that  an  outbreak  of  civil  war  at  the  end  of  that 
period  would  not  have  been  at  all  strange.  To  create 
the  needed  confidence,  to  show  the  doubters  and 
scoffers  on  the  one  hand  that  the  new  government  was 
really  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and 
for  the  people,  and  on  the  other  hand  that  such  a  gov 
ernment  can  be  as  orderly  and  conservative  as  any 
other,  —  this  was  the  noble  work  of  Jefferson,  and  it 
was  in  his  presidency  that  the  sentiment  of  loyalty  to 
the  Union  may  be  said  to  have  taken  root  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people.  One  thing  more  was  needed, 
and  that  was  a  large,  coherent  body  of  judicial  deci 
sions  establishing  the  scope  and  purport  of  the  Con 
stitution,  so  as  to  give  adequate  powers  to  the  national 
government,  while  still  protecting  state  rights.  It  was 
that  prince  of  jurists,  John  Marshall,  who,  as  chief  jus 
tice  of  the  United  States  for  one-third  of  a  century, 
thus  finished  the  glorious  work. 

Of  these  five  great  men  the  names  of  Madison  and 
Marshall  are  much  less  often  upon  people's  lips  than 
the  others'.  The  work  in  which  they  excelled  was  not 
of  a  kind  that  appeals  to  the  popular  imagination,  and 


THE   CONSTRUCTIVE   STATESMAN  187 

personally  they  were  less  picturesque  figures  than  the 
other  three.  Especially  is  this  true  of  Madison. 
There  are  many  people  who  do  not  realize  the  impor 
tance  of  his  career  or  the  greatness  of  his  powers. 
Mr.  Goldwin  Smith,  some  time  ago,  in  an  article  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century  spoke  of  Madison  as  a  respecta 
ble  gentleman  of  moderate  ability,  whose  most  memo 
rable  act  was  allowing  himself  to  be  bullied  and  badgered 
into  making  war  against  Great  Britain  contrary  to  his 
own  better  judgment.  This  is  very  much  as  if  one 
should  say  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton  that  he  was  a  corpu 
lent  old  gentleman,  remembered  chiefly  for  having  been 
master  of  the  mint  and  author  of  a  rather  absurd  book 
on  the  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament.  Mr.  Smith 
evidently  did  not  realize  that  he  was  speaking  of  a 
political  philosopher  worthy  to  be  ranked  with  Montes 
quieu  and  Locke. 

Some  of  the  reasons  for  this  partial  eclipse  of 
Madison's  reputation  will  appear  as  we  proceed.  At 
present  we  may  call  attention  to  the  prevailing  tendency 
to  associate  historic  events  with  some  one  command 
ing  personality,  and  to  forget  all  the  rest.  This  is  a 
labour-saving  process,  but  it  distorts  our  view  of  his 
tory.  Hamilton  was  a  much  more  picturesque  person 
age  than  Madison,  and  so  there  has  been  an  unconscious 
disposition  to  accredit  him  with  Madison's  work  as  well 
as  his  own.  There  are  people  who  know  enough  about 
some  things  to  write  respectable  books,  and  still  know 
so  little  about  American  history  as  to  suppose  that  our 
federal  Constitution  was  substantially  the  work  of 
Hamilton.  One  often  sees  remarks  in  print  in  which 
this  gross  error  is  implied,  if  not  asserted.  In  point 
of  fact  Hamilton  had  almost  nothing  to  do  with  the 


1 88  JAMES  MADISON 

actual  work  of  making  the  Constitution.  If  you  con 
sult  a  set  of  Hamilton's  writings,  you  observe  that  one 
volume  is  the  "  Federalist."  That  is  quite  right,  but 
it  need  not  make  us  forget  that  one-third  of  the  volume 
was  written  by  Madison.  The  work  of  Hamilton  was 
in  itself  so  great  that  there  is  no  need  for  a  Hamilton 
legend  in  which  the  attributes  and  achievements  of 
other  heroes  are  added  to  his  own.  Let  us  now  pass 
in  review  some  points  in  Madison's  career. 

His  earliest  paternal  ancestor  in  Virginia  seems  to 
have  been  John  Madison,  who  in  1653  took  out  a 
patent  for  land  between  the  North  and  York  rivers  on 
Chesapeake  Bay.  There  was  a  Captain  Isaac  Madison 
in  Virginia  as  early  as  1623,  but  his  relationship  to 
John  is  matter  of  doubt.  John's  grandson,  Ambrose 
Madison,  married  Frances  Taylor,  one  of  wrhose 
brothers,  named  Zachary,  was  grandfather  of  President 
Zachary  Taylor.  The  eldest  child  of  Ambrose  and 
Frances  was  James  Madison,  who  was  married  in 
1 749  to  Nelly  Conway,  of  Port  Conway.  Their  eldest 
child,  James,  was  born  at  Port  Conway  on  the  i6th  of 
March,  1751,  so  that  he  was  eight  years  younger  than 
Jefferson  and  six  years  older  than  Hamilton.  He  was 
the  first  of  twelve  children.  His  ancestors,  as  he  says 
himself  in  a  note  furnished  to  my  old  friend  Dr.  Lyman 
Draper  in  1834,  "were  not  among  the  most  wealthy 
of  the  country,  but  in  independent  and  comfortable 
circumstances."  Their  position  and  training  were 
those  of  the  well-educated  and  liberal  country  squire. 
James's  education  was  begun  at  an  excellent  school 
kept  by  a  Scotchman  named  Donald  Robertson,  and 
his  studies  preparatory  for  college  were  completed  at 
home  under  the  care  of  the  clergyman  of  the  parish. 


THE   CONSTRUCTIVE   STATESMAN  189 

His  father  was  colonel  of  the  county  militia,  like 
Jefferson's  father  in  the  next  county,  and  James  could 
always  remember  the  misery  which  followed  upon 
Braddock's  defeat,  though  he  was  only  four  years  old 
at  the  time.  His  intimacy  with  Thomas  Jefferson 
began  at  an  early  age,  and  led  to  a  beautiful  friendship 
which  lasted  through  life.  There  was  probably  no 
other  man  for  whom  Jefferson  felt  such  profound 
respect  as  for  Madison,  and  the  feeling  was  fully  recip 
rocated.  There  were  many  points  of  resemblance 
between  the  two,  such  as  the  sweetness  and  purity  of 
nature,  the  benevolence,  the  liberality  of  mind,  the 
tireless  industry,  the  intense  thirst  for  knowledge ; 
but  nothing  could  have  been  more  striking  than  the 
contrast  in  outward  appearance  between  the  colossal, 
athletic  Jefferson,  rosy  and  fresh  as  a  boy  until  late  in 
life,  and  the  prim,  little,  weazen  Madison,  looking  old 
before  he  was  grown  up.  The  excessive  mental  labour 
which  the  stronger  man,  aided  by  his  horse  and  gun, 
could  endure  with  impunity,  made  the  other  ill.  When 
in  college  and  afterward,  Madison  had  to  struggle 
against  poor  health.  He  was  graduated  at  Princeton 
in  1772,  and  remained  there  another  year,  devoting 
himself  to  the  study  of  Hebrew.  On  returning  home 
he  occupied  himself  with  history,  law,  and  theology, 
while  teaching  his  brothers  and  sisters.  Of  the  details 
of  his  youthful  studies  little  is  known,  but  his  industry 
must  have  been  very  great ;  for  in  spite  of  the  early 
age  at  which  he  became  absorbed  in  the  duties  of 
public  life,  the  range  and  solidity  of  his  acquirements 
were  extraordinary.  For  minute  and  thorough  know 
ledge  of  ancient  and  modern  history  and  of  con 
stitutional  law,  he  was  quite  unequalled  among  the 


190  JAMES   MADISON 

Americans  of  the  Revolutionary  period ;  only  Hamil 
ton,  Ellsworth,  and  Marshall  approached  him  even  at 
a  distance.  The  early  maturity  of  his  power  was  not 
so  astonishing  as  in  Hamilton's  case,  but  it  was  re 
markable,  and,  like  Washington,  he  was  distinguished 
in  youth  for  soundness  of  judgment  and  keenness  of 
perception.  Along  with  these  admirable  qualities,  his 
lofty  integrity  and  his  warm  interest  in  public  affairs 
were  well  known  to  the  people  of  Orange  County,  so 
that  when,  in  the  autumn  of  1 774,  it  was  thought  neces 
sary  to  appoint  a  committee  of  safety,  Madison  was  its 
youngest  member.  Early  in  1776  he  was  chosen  a 
delegate  to  the  state  convention,  which  met  at 
Williamsburg  in  May.  The  first  business  of  the  con 
vention  was  to  instruct  the  Virginia  delegation  in  the 
Continental  Congress  with  regard  to  an  immediate 
declaration  of  independence.  Next  came  the  work  of 
making  a  constitution  for  the  state,  and  Madison  was 
one  of  the  special  committee  appointed  to  deal  with 
this  problem.  Here  one  of  his  first  acts  was  highly 
characteristic.  Religious  liberty  was  a  matter  that 
strongly  enlisted  his  feelings.  When  it  was  proposed 
that,  under  the  new  constitution,  "  all  men  should 
enjoy  the  fullest  toleration  in  the  exercise  of  religion, 
according  to  the  dictates  of  conscience,"  Madison 
pointed  out  that  this  provision  did  not  go  to  the  root 
of  the  matter.  The  free  exercise  of  religion,  according 
to  the  dictates  of  conscience,  is  something  which  every 
man  may  demand  as  a  right,  not  something  for  which 
he  must  ask  as  a  privilege.  To  grant  to  the  state  the 
power  of  tolerating  is  implicitly  to  grant  to  it  the 
power  of  prohibiting,  whereas  Madison  would  deny  to 
it  any  jurisdiction  whatever  in  the  matter  of  religion. 


THE   CONSTRUCTIVE   STATESMAN  191 

The  clause  in  the  bill  of  rights,  as  finally  adopted  at 
his  suggestion,  accordingly  declares  that  "  all  men  are 
equally  entitled  to  the  free  exercise  of  religion,  accord 
ing  to  the  dictates  of  conscience."  The  incident  illus 
trates  not  only  Madison's  liberality  of  spirit,  but  also 
his  precision  and  forethought  in  so  drawing  up  an 
instrument  as  to  make  it  mean  all  that  it  was  intended 
to  mean.  In  his  later  career  these  qualities  were 
especially  brilliant  and  useful. 

Madison  was  elected  a  member  of  the  first  legisla 
ture  under  the  new  state  constitution,  but  he  failed 
of  reelection  because  he  refused  to  solicit  votes  or 
to  furnish  whiskey  for  thirsty  voters.  The  new 
legislature  then  elected  him  a  member  of  the  govern 
or's  council,  and  in  1780  he  was  sent  as  delegate  to 
the  Continental  Congress.  The  high  consideration 
in  which  he  was  held  showed  itself  in  the  number 
of  important  committees  to  which  he  was  appointed. 
As  chairman  of  a  committee  for  drawing  up  instruc 
tions  for  John  Jay,  then  minister  at  the  court  of 
Madrid,  he  insisted  that  in  making  a  treaty  with 
Spain  our  right  to  the  free  navigation  of  the  Missis 
sippi  River  should  on  no  account  be  surrendered. 
Mr.  Jay  was  instructed  accordingly,  but  toward  the 
end  of  1 780  the  pressure  of  the  war  upon  the  Southern 
states  increased  the  desire  for  an  alliance  with  Spain 
to  such  a  point  that  they  seemed  ready  to  purchase 
it  at  any  price.  Virginia  therefore  proposed  that  the 
surrender  of  our  rights  upon  the  Mississippi  should 
be  offered  to  Spain  as  the  condition  of  an  offensive 
and  defensive  alliance.  Such  a  proposal  was  no 
doubt  ill  advised.  Since  Spain  was  already,  on  her 
own  account  and  to  the  best  of  her  ability,  waging 


192  JAMES  MADISON 

war  upon  Great  Britain  in  the  West  Indies  and 
Florida,  to  say  nothing  of  Gibraltar,  it  is  doubtful 
if  she  could  have  done  much  more  for  the  United 
States,  even  if  we  had  offered  her  the  whole  Missis 
sippi  Valley.  The  offer  of  a  permanent  and  invaluable 
right  in  exchange  for  a  temporary  and  questionable 
advantage  seemed  to  Mr.  Madison  very  unwise ; 
but  as  it  was  then  generally  held  that  in  such  matters 
representatives  must  be  bound  by  the  wishes  of  their 
constituents,  he  yielded,  though  under  protest.  But 
hardly  had  the  fresh  instructions  been  despatched  to 
Mr.  Jay  when  the  overthrow  of  Cornwallis  again  turned 
the  scale,  and  Spain  was  informed  that,  •  as  concerned 
the  Mississippi  question,  Congress  was  immovable. 
The  foresight  and  sound  judgment  shown  by  Mr.  Madi 
son  in  this  discussion  added  much  to  his  reputation. 

His  next  prominent  action  related  to  the  impost 
law  proposed  in  1783.  This  was,  in  some  respects, 
the  most  important  question  of  the  day.  The  chief 
source  of  the  weakness  of  the  United  States  during 
the  Revolutionary  War  had  been  the  impossibility  of 
raising  money  by  means  of  federal  taxation.  As  long 
as  money  could  be  raised  only  through  requisitions 
upon  the  state  governments,  and  the  different  states 
could  not  be  brought  to  agree  upon  any  method  of 
enforcing  the  requisitions,  the  state  governments 
were  sure  to  prove  delinquent.  Finding  it  impossible 
to  obtain  money  for  carrying  on  the  war,  Congress 
had  resorted  to  the  issue  of  large  quantities  of  incon 
vertible  paper,  with  the  natural  results.  There  had 
been  a  rapid  inflation  of  values,  followed  by  sudden 
bankruptcy  and  the  prostration  of  national  credit.  In 
1783  it  had  become  difficult  to  obtain  foreign  loans, 


THE   CONSTRUCTIVE   STATESMAN  1 93 

and  at  home  the  government  could  not  raise  nearly 
enough  money  to  defray  its  current  expenses.  To 
remedy  the  evil,  a  tariff  of  five  per  cent  upon  sundry 
imports,  with  a  specific  duty  upon  others,  was  pro 
posed  in  Congress  and  offered  to  the  several  states 
for  approval.  To  weaken  as  much  as  possible  the 
objections  to  such  a  law,,  its  operation  was  limited 
to  twenty-five  years.  Even  in  this  mild  form,  how 
ever,  it  was  impossible  to  persuade  the  several  states 
to  submit  to  federal  taxation.  Virginia  at  first 
assented  to  the  impost  law,  but  afterward  revoked 
her  action.  On  this  occasion  Mr.  Madison,  feeling 
that  the  very  existence  of  the  nation  was  at  stake, 
refused  to  be  controlled  by  the  action  of  his  constitu 
ents.  He  persisted  in  urging  the  necessity  of  such 
an  impost  law,  and  eventually  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  Virginia  adopt  his  view  of  the  matter. 

The  discussion  of  the  impost  law  in  Congress  re 
vealed  the  antagonism  between  the  slave  states  and 
those  states  which  had  emancipated  their  slaves.  In 
endeavouring  to  apportion  the  quotas  of  revenue  to 
be  required  of  the  several  states,  it  was  observed  that, 
if  taxation  were  to  be  distributed  according  to  popu 
lation,  it  made  a  great  difference  whether  slaves  were 
to  be  counted  as  population  or  not.  If  slaves  were 
to  be  counted,  the  Southern  states  would  have  to  pay 
more  than  their  equitable  share  into  the  federal 
treasury ;  if  slaves  were  not  to  be  counted,  it  was 
argued  at  the  North  that  they  would  be  paying  less 
than  their  equitable  share.  Consequently  at  that 
time  the  North  was  inclined  to  maintain  that  the 
slaves  were  population,  while  the  South  preferred  to 
regard  them  as  chattels.  The  question  was  settled 


194  JAMES   MADISON 

by  a  compromise  proposed  by  Mr.  Madison :  the 
slaves  were  rated  as  population,  but  in  such  wise 
that  five  of  them  were  counted  as  three  persons. 

In  1 784  Mr.  Madison  was  again  elected  to  the  Vir 
ginia  legislature,  an  office  then  scarcely  inferior  in 
dignity,  and  superior  in  influence,  to  that  of  delegate 
to  the  Continental  Congress.  His  efforts  were  stead 
fastly  devoted  to  the  preparation  and  advancing  of 
measures  calculated  to  increase  the  strength  of  the 
federal  government.  He  supported  the  proposed 
amendment  to  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  giving 
to  Congress  control  over  the  foreign  trade  of  the 
states ;  and  pending  the  adoption  of  such  a  measure 
he  secured  the  passage  of  a  port  bill  restricting  the 
entry  of  foreign  ships  to  certain  specified  ports.  The 
purpose  of  this  was  to  facilitate  the  collection  of  reve 
nue,  but  it  was  partially  defeated  in  its  operation  by 
successive  amendments  increasing  the  number  of  ports. 
While  the  weakness  of  the  general  government  and 
the  need  for  strengthening  it  were  daily  growing  more 
apparent,  the  question  of  religious  liberty  was  the  sub 
ject  of  earnest  discussion  in  the  Virginia  legislature. 
An  attempt  was  made  to  lay  a  tax  upon  all  the  people 
"  for  the  support  of  teachers  of  the  Christian  religion." 
At  first  Madison  was  almost  the  only  one  to  see 
clearly  the  serious  danger  lurking  in  such  a  tax ;  that 
it  would  be  likely  to  erect  a  State  Church  and  curtail 
men's  freedom  of  belief  and  worship.  Madison's  posi 
tion  here  well  illustrated  the  remark  that  intelligent 
persistence  is  capable  of  making  one  person  a  majority. 
His  energetic  opposition  resulted  at  first  in  postpon 
ing  the  measure.  Then  he  wrote  a  "Memorial  and 
Remonstrance,"  setting  forth  its  dangerous  charac- 


THE   CONSTRUCTIVE   STATESMAN  195 

ter  with  wonderful  clearness  and  cogency.  He  sent 
this  paper  all  over  the  state  for  signatures,  and  in  the 
course  of  a  twelvemonth  had  so  educated  the  people 
that  in  the  election  of  1785  the  question  of  religious 
freedom  was  made  a  test  question ;  and  in  the  ensuing 
session  the  dangerous  bill  was  defeated,  and  in  place 
thereof  it  was  enacted  "  that  no  man  shall  be  com 
pelled  to  frequent  or  support  any  religious  worship, 
place,  or  ministry  whatsoever,  nor  shall  be  enforced, 
restrained,  molested,  or  burthened  in  his  body  or 
goods,  nor  shall  otherwise  suffer  on  account  of  his 
religious  opinions  or  belief ;  but  that  all  men  shall  be 
free  to  profess,  and  by  argument  maintain,  their  opin 
ions  in  matters  of  religion,  and  that  the  same  shall  in 
no  wise  diminish,  enlarge,  or  affect  their  civil  capaci 
ties."  In  thus  abolishing  religious  tests,  Virginia  came 
to  the  front  among  all  the  American  states,  as  Massa 
chusetts  had  come  to  the  front  in  the  abolition  of 
negro  slavery.  Nearly  all  the  states  still  imposed 
religious  tests  upon  civil  office  holders,  from  simply 
declaring  a  general  belief  in  the  infallibleness  of  the 
Bible,  to  accepting  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  Madi 
son's  "  Religious  Freedom  Act "  was  translated  into 
French  and  Italian,  and  was  widely  read  and  com 
mented  upon  in  Europe.  In  our  own  history  it  set  a 
most  valuable  precedent  for  other  states  to  follow. 

The  attitude  of  Mr.  Madison  with  regard  to  paper 
money  was  also  very  important.  The  several  states 
had  then  the  power  of  issuing  promissory  notes  and 
making  them  a  legal  tender,  and  many  of  them  shame 
fully  abused  this  power.  The  year  1786  witnessed 
perhaps  the  most  virulent  craze  for  paper  money  that 
has  ever  attacked  the  American  people.  In  Virginia 


196  JAMES   MADISON 

the  masterly  reasoning  and  the  resolute  attitude  of  a 
few  great  political  leaders  saved  the  state  from  yield 
ing  to  the  delusion,  and  among  these  leaders  Madison 
was  foremost.  But  his  most  important  work  in  the 
Virginia  legislature  was  that  which  led  directly  to  the 
Annapolis  convention,  and  thus  ultimately  to  the  fram 
ing  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The 
source  from  which  such  vast  results  were  to  flow  was 
the  necessity  of  an  agreement  between  Maryland  and 
Virginia  with  regard  to  the  navigation  of  the  Potomac 
River  and  the  collection  of  duties  at  ports  on  its  banks. 
Commissioners,  appointed  by  the  two  states  to  discuss 
this  question,  met  early  in  1785,  and  recommended 
that  a  uniform  tariff  should  be  adopted  and  enforced 
upon  both  banks.  But  a  further  question,  also  closely 
connected  with  the  navigation  of  the  Potomac,  now 
came  up  for  discussion.  The  tide  of  westward  migra 
tion  had  for  some  time  been  pouring  over  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  and,  owing  to  complications  with  the  Spanish 
power  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  there  was  some  dan 
ger  that  the  United  States  might  not  be  able  to  keep 
its  hold  upon  the  new  settlements.  It  was  necessary 
to  strengthen  the  commercial  ties  between  East  and 
West,  and  to  this  end  the  Potomac  Company  was 
formed  for  the  purpose  of  improving  the  navigation 
of  the  upper  waters  of  the  Potomac  and  connecting 
them  by  good  roads  and  canals  with  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Ohio  at  Pittsburg  —  an  enterprise  which  in 
due  course  of  time  resulted  in  the  Chesapeake  and 
Ohio  Canal.  The  first  president  of  the  Potomac 
Company  was  George  Washington,  who  well  under 
stood  that  the  undertaking  was  quite  as  important  in 
its  political  as  in  its  commercial  bearings.  At  the 


THE   CONSTRUCTIVE   STATESMAN  197 

same  time  it  was  proposed  to  connect  the  Potomac 
and  Delaware  rivers  with  a  canal,  and  a  company  was 
organized  for  this  purpose.  This  made  it  desirable 
that  the  four  states  —  Virginia,  Maryland,  Delaware, 
and  Pennsylvania  —  should  agree  upon  the  laws  for 
regulating  interstate  traffic  through  this  system  of 
waterways.  But  from  this  it  was  but  a  short  step 
to  the  conclusion  that,  since  the  whole  commercial 
system  of  the  United  States  confessedly  needed  over 
hauling,  it  might  perhaps  be  as  well  for  all  the  thir 
teen  states  to  hold  a  convention  for  considering  the 
matter.  When  such  a  suggestion  was  communicated 
from  the  legislature  of  Maryland  to  that  of  Virginia, 
it  afforded  Madison  the  opportunity  for  which  he  had 
been  eagerly  waiting.  Some  time  before  he  had  pre 
pared  a  resolution  for  the  appointment  of  commission 
ers  to  confer  with  commissioners  from  the  other 
states  concerning  the  trade  of  the  country  and  the 
advisableness  of  intrusting  its  regulation  to  the  fed 
eral  government.  This  resolution  Madison  left  to  be 
offered  to  the  assembly  by  some  one  less  conspicu 
ously  identified  with  Federalist  opinions  than  himself ; 
and  it  was  accordingly  presented  by  John  Tyler, 
father  of  the  future  President  of  that  name.  The 
motion  was  unfavourably  received  and  was  laid  upon 
the  table ;  but  when  the  message  came  from  Maryland 
the  matter  was  reconsidered  and  the  resolution  passed. 
Annapolis  was  selected  as  the  place  for  the  conven 
tion,  which  assembled  September  n,  1786.  Only  five 
states  —  Virginia,  Delaware,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jer 
sey,  arid  New  York — were  represented  at  the  meeting. 
Maryland,  which  had  first  suggested  the  convention, 
had  seen  the  appointed  time  arrive  without  even  taking 


198  JAMES   MADISON 

the  trouble  to  select  commissioners.  As  the  repre 
sentation  was  so  inadequate,  the  convention  thought 
it  best  to  defer  action,  and  accordingly  adjourned  after 
adopting  an  address  to  the  states,  which  was  pre 
pared  by  Alexander  Hamilton.  The  address  incorpo 
rated  a  suggestion  from  New  Jersey,  which  indefinitely 
enlarged  the  business  to  be  treated  by  such  a  conven 
tion  ;  it  was  to  deal  not  only  with  the  regulation  of 
commerce,  but  with  "  other  important  matters."  Act 
ing  upon  this  cautious  hint,  the  address  recommended 
the  calling  of  a  second  convention,  to  be  held  at  Phila 
delphia  on  the  second  Monday  of  May,  1787.  Mr. 
Madison  was  one  of  the  commissioners  at  Annapolis, 
and  was  very  soon  appointed  a  delegate  to  the  new 
convention,  along  with  Washington,  Randolph,  Mason, 
and  others.  The  avowed  purpose  of  the  new  con 
vention  was  to  "  devise  such  provisions  as  shall  appear 
necessary  to  render  the  Constitution  of  the  federal 
government  adequate  to  the  exigencies  of  the  Union, 
and  to  report  to  Congress  such  an  act  as,  when  agreed 
to  by  them,  and  confirmed  by  the  legislatures  of  every 
state,  would  effectually  provide  for  the  same."  The 
report  of  the  Annapolis  commissioners  was  brought 
before  Congress  in  October,  in  the  hope  that  Congress 
would  earnestly  recommend  to  the  several  states  the 
course  of  action  therein  suggested.  At  first  the  objec 
tions  to  the  plan  prevailed  in  Congress,  but  the  events 
of  the  winter  went  far  toward  persuading  men  in  all 
parts  of  the  country  that  the  only  hope  of  escaping 
anarchy  lay  in  a  thorough  revision  of  the  imperfect 
scheme  of  government  under  which  we  were  then 
living.  The  paper  money  craze  in  so  many  of  the 
states,  "the  violent  proceedings  in  the  Rhode  Island 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  STATESMAN       199 

legislature,  the  riots  in  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire, 
the  Shays  rebellion  in  Massachusetts,  the  dispute  with 
Spain  about  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the 
consequent  imminent  danger  of  separation  between 
North  and  South,  had  all  come  together ;  and  now  the 
last  ounce  was  laid  upon  the  camel's  back  in  the  fail 
ure  of  the  impost  amendment  In  February,  1787, 
just  as  Mr.  Madison,  who  had  been  chosen  a  delegate 
to  Congress,  arrived  in  New  York,  the  legislature  of 
that  state  refused  its  assent  to  the  amendment,  which 
was  thus  defeated.  Thus,  only  three  months  before 
the  time  designated  for  the  meeting  of  the  Philadel 
phia  convention,  Congress  was  decisively  informed 
that  it  would  not  be  allowed  to  take  any  effectual 
measures  for  raising  a  revenue.  This  accumulation 
of  difficulties  made  Congress  much  more  ready  to 
listen  to  the  weighty  arguments  of  Mr.  Madison,  and 
presently  Congress  itself  proposed  a  convention  at 
Philadelphia  identical  with  the  one  recommended  by 
the  Annapolis  commissioners,  and  thus  in  its  own  way 
sanctioned  their  action. 

The  assembling  of  the  convention  at  Philadelphia 
was  an  event  to  which  Madison,  by  persistent  energy 
and  skill,  had  contributed  more  than  any  other  man  in 
the  country,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Hamilton. 
It  was  in  the  convention  that  Madison  did  the  greatest 
work  of  his  life.  Before  the  convention  met  he  had 
laid  before  his  colleagues  of  the  Virginia  delegation 
the  outlines  of  the  scheme  that  was  presented  to  the 
convention  as  the  "  Virginia  plan."  Of  the  delegates 
Edmund  Randolph  was  then  governor  of  Virginia, 
and  it  was  he  that  presented  the  plan  and  made  the 
opening  speech  in  defence  of  it ;  but  its  chief  author 


200  JAMES   MADISON 

was  Madison.  This  "  Virginia  plan  "  struck  directly 
at  the  root  of  the  evils  from  which  our  federal  govern 
ment  had  suffered  under  the  articles  of  confederation. 
The  weakness  of  that  government  had  consisted  in 
the  fact  that  it  operated  only  upon  states,  and  not  upon 
individuals.  Only  states,  not  individuals,  were  repre 
sented  in  the  Continental  Congress,  which  accordingly 
resembled  a  European  congress  rather  than  an  English 
parliament.  According  to  the  ideas  entertained  at 
the  time  of  the  Revolution,  the  legislative  assembly  of 
each  state  was  its  House  of  Commons ;  in  one  state, 
North  Carolina,  it  was  called  by  that  name.  Con 
gresses  were  extraordinary  meetings  of  delegates  held 
on  occasions  when  the  several  states  felt  it  necessary 
to  consult  with  each  other,  just  as  sometimes  happens 
in  Europe.  There  was  a  Congress  at  Albany  in  1 754, 
and  one  at  New  York  in  1765,  and  one  at  Philadelphia 
in  1774;  the  advent  of  war  and  revolution  had  made 
this  last  one  permanent,  and  it  was  the  only  body  that 
represented  the  United  States  as  a  whole.  Yet  the 
delegates  were  much  more  like  envoys  from  sovereign 
states  than  like  members  of  a  legislative  body.  They 
might  deliberate  and  advise,  but  had  no  means  of  en 
forcing  their  will  upon,  the  several  state  governments ; 
and  hence  they  could  neither  raise  a  revenue  nor  pre 
serve  order.  Now  the  cure  for  this  difficulty,  devised 
by  Madison  and  first  suggested  in  the  "  Virginia  plan," 
lay  in  transforming  the  Congress  into  a  parliament, 
in  making  it  a  national  legislature  elected  by  the  whole 
American  people  and  having  the  same  authority  over 
them  that  each  state  legislature  was  wont  to  exercise 
over  the  people  of  its  own  state.  It  was  really  throw 
ing  Congress  overboard  and  creating  a  parliament 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  STATESMAN       2OI 

instead,  only  it  would  not  do  to  call  it  so,  because 
Americans  at  that  time  were  not  fond  of  the  name. 
The  new  House  of  Representatives  could  of  course 
tax  the  people  because  it  represented  them.  For  the 
same  reason  it  could  make  laws,  and  to  enable  it  to 
enforce  them  there  was  to  be  a  federal  executive  and 
a  federal  judiciary.  To  the  familiar  state  governments 
under  which  people  lived  Madison  thus  superadded 
another  government,  complete  in  all  its  branches  and 
likewise  coming  into  direct  contact  with  the  people. 
And  yet  this  new  government  was  not  to  override  the 
old  ones ;  state  governors  are  not  subordinate  to  the 
President,  or  state  legislatures  to  Congress;  each  is 
sovereign  within  its  own  sphere.  This  was  the  supreme 
act  of  creative  statesmanship  that  made  our  country 
what  it  is;  transforming  it,  as  the  Germans  say,  from 
a  Staatesnbund  into  a  Bundesstaat,  or,  as  I  may  trans 
late  these  terms,  from  a  Band-of-States  into  a  Banded- 
State.  All  this  seems  natural  enough  now,  but  the 
men  who  could  thus  think  out  the  problem  a  century 
ago  must  be  ranked  as  high  among  constructive  states 
men  as  Newton  among  scientific  discoverers.  It  is  to 
Madison  that  we  owe  this  grand  and  luminous  concep 
tion  of  the  two  coexisting  and  harmonious  spheres  of 
government,  although  the  Constitution,  as  actually 
framed,  was  the  result  of  skilful  compromises  by  which 
the  Virginia  plan  was  modified  and  improved  in  many 
important  points.  In  its  original  shape  that  plan  went 
farther  toward  national  consolidation  than  the  Consti 
tution  as  adopted.  It  contemplated  a  national  legisla 
ture  to  be  composed  of  two  houses,  but  both  the  upper 
and  the  lower  house  were  to  represent  population  in 
stead  of  states.  Here  it  encountered  fierce  opposition 


202  JAMES   MADISON 

from  the  smaller  states,  under  the  lead  of  New  Jersey, 
until  the  matter  was  settled  by  the  famous  Connecticut 
compromise,  according  to  which  the  upper  house  was 
to  represent  states,  while  the  lower  house  represented 
population.  Madison's  original  scheme,  moreover, 
would  have  allowed  the  national  legislature  to  set  aside 
at  discretion  such  state  laws  as  it  might  deem  uncon 
stitutional.  It  may  seem  strange  to  find  Madison, 
who  afterward  drafted  the  Virginia  resolutions  of  1 798, 
now  suggesting  and  defending  a  provision  so  destruc 
tive  of  state  rights.  It  shows  how  strongly  he  was 
influenced  at  the  time  by  the  desire  to  put  an  end  to 
the  prevailing  anarchy.  The  discussion  of  this  matter 
in  the  convention,  as  we  read  it  to-day,  brings  out  in 
a  very  strong  light  the  excellence  of  the  arrangement 
finally  adopted,  by  which  the  constitutionality  of  state 
laws  is  left  to  be  determined  through  the  decision  of 
the  federal  Supreme  Court. 

In  all  the  discussions  in  the  federal  convention, 
Madison  naturally  took  a  leading  part.  Besides  the 
work  of  cardinal  importance  which  he  achieved  as 
principal  author  of  the  Virginia  plan,  especial  mention 
must  be  made  of  the  famous  compromise  that  adjusted 
the  distribution  of  representatives  between  the  North 
ern  and  the  Southern  states.  We  have  seen  that  in 
the  Congress  of  1783,  when  it  was  a  question  of  taxa 
tion,  the  South  was  inclined  to  regard  slaves  as  chat 
tels,  while  the  North  preferred  to  regard  them  as 
population.  Now,  when  it  had  come  to  be  a  question 
of  the  apportionment  of  representation,  the  case  was  re 
versed  ;  it  was  the  South  that  wished  to  count  slaves 
as  population,  while  the  North  insisted  that  they 
should  be  classed  as  chattels.  Here  Mr.  Madison 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  STATESMAN       203 

proposed  the  same  compromise  that  had  succeeded  in 
Congress  four  years  before ;  and  Mr.  Rutledge,  of 
South  Carolina,  who  had  supported  him  on  the  former 
occasion,  could  hardly  do  otherwise  than  come  again 
to  his  side.  It  was  agreed  that  in  counting  population, 
whether  for  direct  taxation  or  for  representation  in  the 
lower  house  of  Congress,  five  slaves  should  be  reckoned 
as  three  individuals.  In  the  history  of  the  formation 
of  our  federal  Union,  this  compromise  was  of  cardinal 
importance.  Without  it  the  Union  would  undoubt 
edly  have  gone  to  pieces  at  the  outset,  and  it  was  for 
this  reason  that  the  northern  Abolitionists,  Gouverneur 
Morris  and  Rufus  King,  joined  with  Washington  and 
Madison,  and  with  the  pro-slavery  Pinckneys,  in  sub 
scribing  to  it.  Some  of  the  evils  resulting  from  this 
compromise  have  led  historians,  writing  from  the  Abo 
litionist  point  of  view,  to  condemn  it  utterly.  Nothing 
can  be  clearer,  however,  than  that,  in  order  to  secure 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  it  was  absolutely 
necessary  to  satisfy  South  Carolina.  This  was  proved 
by  the  course  of  events  in  1788,  when  there  was  a 
strong  party  in  Virginia  in  favour  of  a  separate  con 
federacy  of  Southern  states.  By  South  Carolina's 
prompt  ratification  of  the  Constitution,  this  scheme 
was  completely  defeated,  and  a  most  formidable  ob 
stacle  to  the  formation  of  a  more  perfect  union  was 
removed.  Of  all  the  compromises  in  American  his 
tory,  this  of  the  so-called  "  three-fifths  rule  "  was  prob 
ably  the  most  important ;  until  the  beginning  of  the 
Civil  War,  there  was  hardly  a  political  movement  of 
any  consequence  that  was  not  affected  by  it. 

Mr.     Madison's    services    in    connection    with    the 
founding  of  our  federal  government  were  thus,  up  to 


204  JAMES   MADISON 

this  point,  of  the  most  transcendent  kind.  We  have 
seen  that  he  played  a  leading  part  in  the  difficult  work 
of  getting  a  convention  to  assemble ;  the  merit  of  this 
he  shares  with  other  eminent  men,  and  notably  with 
Washington  and  Hamilton.  Then  he  was  chief  author 
of  the  most  fundamental  features  in  the  Constitution, 
those  which  transformed  our  government  from  a  loose 
and  feeble  confederacy  of  states  into  a  strong  federal 
nation ;  and  to  him  is  due  the  principal  credit  for  the 
compromise  that  made  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
possible  for  all  the  states.  After  the  adjournment  of 
the  convention  his  services  did  not  cease.  Among 
those  whose  influence  in  bringing  about  the  ratifica 
tion  of  the  Constitution  was  felt  all  over  the  country, 
he  shares  with  Hamilton  the  foremost  place.  Accord 
ing  to  his  own  memorandum  he  was  the  author  of 
twenty-nine  of  the  essays  in  the  "  Federalist,"  while 
fifty-one  were  written  by  Hamilton  and  five  by  Jay. 
Some  of  the  essays,  however,  seem  to  have  been  writ 
ten  by  Madison  and  Hamilton  jointly,  and  as  to  others 
there  has  been  more  or  less  dispute.  The  question  is 
not  of  great  importance.  Very  likely  Madison  would 
have  had  a  larger  share  in  the  work  had  he  not  been 
obliged,  in  March,  1 788,  to  return  to  Virginia,  in  order 
to  take  part  in  the  state  convention  for  deciding  upon 
the  ratification  of  the  Constitution.  Here  the  task 
before  him,  though  not  so  arduous  as  that  of  Hamilton 
in  the  New  York  convention,  was  arduous  enough. 
Unlike  his  friend  Jefferson,  who  could  hardly  speak  in 
public,  Madison  was  one  of  the  most  formidable  par 
liamentary  debaters  that  ever  lived.  Without  a  par 
ticle  of  eloquence  or  of  what  is  called  personal 
magnetism,  with  a  dry  style  and  a  mild,  unimpassioned 


THE   CONSTRUCTIVE   STATESMAN  205 

delivery,  he  would  nevertheless  have  been  a  fair  match 
for  Charles  Fox  or  the  younger  Pitt.  His  vast  know 
ledge  was  always  at  command,  his  ideas  were  always 
clear  and  his  grasp  of  the  situation  perfect,  and  al 
though  he  was  so  modest  that  the  colour  came  and 
went  upon  his  cheeks  as  upon  a  young  girl's,  he  was 
never  flurried  or  thrown  off  his  guard.  He  repre 
sented  pure  intelligence,  which  is  doubtless  one  reason 
why  his  popular  fame  has  not  been  equal  to  his  merit. 
There  is  nothing  especially  picturesque  about  pure 
intelligence,  but  it  is  a  great  power  nevertheless.  The 
opposition  in  Virginia  was  strong  and  well  organized, 
and  had  for  leaders  such  eminent  patriots  as  Patrick 
Henry  and  Richard  Henry  Lee.  The  alliance  between 
South  Carolina  and  the  New  England  states,  which  in 
exchange  for  a  prolongation  of  the  foreign  slave-trade 
for  twenty  years  gave  to  Congress  the  power  of  regu 
lating  commerce  by  a  simple  majority  vote,  had 
alarmed  Virginia.  It  was  feared  that  it  would  enable 
the  Northern  states  to  enter  upon  a  commercial  policy 
in  which  the  interests  of  Virginia  would  be  disre 
garded.  There  was  also  a  party  from  the  Kentucky 
district,  which  was  disgusted  at  the  Northern  indiffer 
ence  to  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
and  thought  that  the  interests  of  all  that  part  of  the 
country  could  best  be  secured  by  a  separate  Southern 
confederacy.  As  just  observed,  South  Carolina  had 
already  defeated  this  dangerous  scheme  by  ratifying 
the  Constitution.  Nevertheless,  when  the  Virginia 
convention  met,  the  opponents  of  the  Constitution 
were  doubtless  in  the  majority.  The  debates  lasted 
nearly  a  month,  and  for  a  considerable  part  of  this 
time  the  outlook  was  not  promising.  The  discussion 


206  JAMES   MADISON 

was  conducted  mainly  between  Madison  and  Henry, 
the  former  being  chiefly  assisted  by  Randolph,  Wythe, 
Marshall,  Pendleton,  and  young  Henry  Lee;  the  latter 
by  Mason,  Monroe,  Harrison,  and  Tyler.  To  Madi 
son,  more  than  to  any  one  else,  it  was  due  that  the 
Constitution  was  at  length  ratified,  while  the  narrow 
ness  of  the  majority  —  eighty-nine  to  seventy-nine  — 
bore  witness  to  the  severity  of  the  contest.  It  did  not 
appear  that  the  people  of  Virginia  were  even  yet  con 
vinced  by  the  arguments  that  had  prevailed  in  the  con 
vention.  The  assembly  that  met  in  the  following 
October  showed  a  heavy  majority  of  Anti-federalists,  and 
under  Henry's  leadership  it  called  upon  Congress  for  a 
second  national  convention,  to  reconsider  the  work 
done  by  the  first.  Senators  were  now  to  be  chosen 
for  the  first  United  States  Senate,  and  Henry,  in 
naming  Richard  Henry  Lee  and  William  Grayson, 
both  Anti-federalists,  as  the  two  men  who  ought  to  be 
chosen,  took  pains  to  mention  James  Madison  as  the 
one  man  who  on  no  account  whatever  ought  to  be 
elected  senator.  Henry  was  successful  in  carrying 
this  point.  The  next  thing  was  to  keep  Madison  out 
of  Congress,  and  Henry's  friends  sought  to  accom 
plish  this  by  means  of  the  device  afterward  known  as 
"  gerrymandering  " ;  but  the  attempt  failed,  and  Madi 
son  was  elected  to  the  first  national  House  of  Repre 
sentatives.  His  great  knowledge,  and  the  part  he  had 
played  in  building  up  the  framework  of  the  govern 
ment,  made  him  from  the  outset  the  leading  member 
of  the  House.  His  first  motion  was  one  for  raising 
a  revenue  by  tariff  and  tonnage  duties.  He  offered 
the  resolutions  for  creating  the  executive  departments 
of  foreign  affairs,  of  the  treasury,  and  of  war.  He 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  STATESMAN       207 

proposed  twelve  amendments  to  the  Constitution,  in 
order  to  meet  the  objection,  urged  in  many  quarters, 
that  that  instrument  did  not  contain  a  bill  of  rights. 
The  first  ten  of  these  amendments  were  adopted,  and 
became  part  of  the  Constitution  in  1791. 

The  first  division  of  political  parties  under  the  Con 
stitution  began  to  show  itself  in  the  debates  upon 
Hamilton's  financial  measures  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  in  this  division  we  see  Madison  acting 
as  leader  of  the  opposition.  By  many  writers  this 
has  been  regarded  as  indicating  a  radical  change  of 
attitude  on  his  part,  and  sundry  explanations  have 
been  offered  to  account  for  the  presumed  inconsist 
ency.  He  has  been  supposed  to  have  succumbed  to 
the  personal  influence  of  Jefferson,  and  to  have  yielded 
his  own  convictions  to  the  desires  and  prejudices  of 
his  constituents.  Such  explanations  are  hardly  borne 
out  by  what  we  know  of  Madison's  career  up  to  this 
point;  and,  moreover,  they  are  uncalled  for.  If  we 
consider  carefully  the  circumstances  of  the  time,  the 
presumed  inconsistency  in  his  conduct  disappears. 
The  new  Republican  party,  of  which  he  soon  became 
one  of  the  leaders,  was  something  quite  different  in  its 
attitude  from  the  Anti-federalist  party  of  1787-1790. 
There  was  ample  room  in  it  for  men  who,  in  those 
critical  years,  had  been  stanch  Federalists,  and  as  time 
passed  this  came  to  be  more  and  more  the  case,  until, 
after  a  quarter  of  a  century,  the  entire  Federalist  party, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  inflexible  men  in  New 
England,  had  been  absorbed  by  the  Republican  party. 
In  1 790,  since  the  federal  Constitution  had  been  actually 
adopted  and  was  going  into  operation,  and  since  the 
extent  of  power  that  it  granted  to  the  general  govern- 


208  JAMES   MADISON 

ment  must  be  gradually  tested  by  the  discussion  of 
specific  measures,  it  followed  that  the  only  natural  and 
healthful  division  of  parties  must  be  the  division  be 
tween  strict  and  loose  constructionists.  It  was  to  be 
expected  that  Anti-federalists  would  become  strict  con 
structionists,  and  so  most  of  them  did,  though  examples 
were  not  wanting  of  such  men  swinging  to  the  oppo 
site  extreme  of  politics  and  advocating  an  extension 
of  the  powers  of  the  federal  government.  This  was 
the  case  with  Patrick  Henry.  But  there  was  no 
reason  in  the  world  why  a  Federalist  of  1787-1790 
must  thereafter,  in  order  to  preserve  his  consistency, 
become  a  loose  constructionist.  It  was  entirely  con 
sistent  for  a  statesman  to  advocate  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  while  convinced  that  the  powers  specifi 
cally  granted  therein  to  the  general  government  were 
ample  and  that  great  care  should  be  taken  not  to  add 
indefinitely  to  such  powers  through  rash  and  loose 
methods  of  interpretation.  Not  only  is  such  an  atti 
tude  perfectly  reasonable  in  itself,  but  it  is,  in  particu 
lar,  the  one  that  a  principal  author  of  the  Constitution 
would  have  been  very  likely  to  take ;  and  no  doubt  it 
was  just  this  attitude  that  Mr.  Madison  took  in  the 
early  sessions  of  Congress.  The  occasions  on  which 
he  assumed  it  were,  moreover,  eminently  proper,  and 
afford  an  admirable  illustration  of  the  difference  in 
temper  and  mental  habit  between  himself  and  Hamil 
ton.  The  latter  had  always  more  faith  in  the  heroic 
treatment  of  political  questions  than  Madison.  The 
restoration  of  American  credit  in  1790  was  a  task 
that  demanded  heroic  measures,  and  it  was  fortunate 
that  we  had  such  a  man  as  Hamilton  to  undertake  it. 
But  undoubtedly  the  assumption  of  state  debts  by  the 


THE   CONSTRUCTIVE   STATESMAN  209 

federal  government,  however  admirably  it  met  the 
emergency  of  the  moment,  was  such  a  measure  as 
might  easily  create  a  dangerous  precedent,  and  there 
was  certainly  nothing  strange  or  inconsistent  in  Madi 
son's  opposition  to  it.  A  similar  explanation  will 
cover  his  opposition  to  Hamilton's  national  bank; 
and  indeed,  with  the  considerations  here  given  as  a 
clew,  there  is  little  or  nothing  in  Mr.  Madison's  career 
in  Congress  that  is  not  thoroughly  intelligible.  At 
the  time,  however,  the  Federalists,  disappointed  at  los 
ing  a  man  of  so  much  power,  misunderstood  his  acts 
and  misrepresented  his  motives,  and  the  old  friendship 
between  him  and  Hamilton  gave  way  to  mutual  dis 
trust  and  dislike.  In  the  political  agitation  caused 
by  the  French  Revolution,  Mr.  Madison  sympathized 
with  the  revolutionists,  though  he  did  not  go  so  far  in 
this  direction  as  Jefferson.  In  the  debates  upon  Jay's 
treaty  with  Great  Britain,  he  led  the  opposition,  and 
earnestly  supported  the  resolution  asking  President 
Washington  to  submit  to  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  copies  of  the  papers  relating  to  the  negotiation. 
After  three  weeks  of  debate  the  resolution  was  passed, 
but  Washington  refused  the  request  on  the  ground 
that  the  making  of  treaties  was  intrusted  by  the  Con 
stitution  to  the  President  and  the  Senate,  and  that  the 
lower  house  was  not  entitled  to  meddle  with  their 
work. 

At  the  close  of  Washington's  second  administration, 
Mr.  Madison  retired  for  a  brief  season  from  public 
life.  During  this  difficult  period  the  country  had 
been  fortunate  in  having,  as  leader  of  the  opposition 
in  Congress,  a  man  so  wise  in  counsel,  so  temperate  in 
spirit,  and  so  courteous  in  demeanour.  Whatever  else 


210  JAMES  MADISON 

might  be  said  of  Madison's  conduct  in  opposition,  it 
could  never  be  called  factious ;  it  was  calm,  generous, 
and  disinterested.  About  two  years  before  the  close 
of  his  career  in  Congress,  he  married  Mrs.  Dolly 
Payne  Todd,  a  beautiful  widow,  much  younger  than 
himself;  and  about  this  time  he  seems  to  have  built 
the  house  at  Montpelier  which  was  to  be  his  home 
during  his  later  years.  But  retirement  from  public 
life,  in  any  real  sense  of  the  phrase,  was  not  yet  possi 
ble  for  such  a  man.  The  wrath  of  the  French  govern 
ment  over  Jay's  treaty  led  to  depredations  upon 
American  shipping,  to  the  sending  of  commissions  to 
Paris,  and  to  the  blackmailing  attempts  of  Talleyrand, 
as  shown  up  in  the  X.  Y.  Z.  despatches.  In  the  fierce 
outburst  of  indignation  that  in  America  greeted  these 
disclosures,  in  the  sudden  desire  for  war  with  France, 
which  went  so  far  as  to  vent  itself  in  actual  fighting  on 
the  sea,  though  war  was  never  declared,  the  Federalist 
party  believed  itself  to  be  so  strong  that  it  proceeded 
at  once  to  make  one  of  the  greatest  blunders  ever 
made  by  a  political  party,  in  passing  the  alien  and  sedi 
tion  acts.  This  high-handed  legislation  caused  a  sud 
den  revulsion  of  feeling  in  favour  of  the  Republicans, 
and  called  forth  vigorous  remonstrance.  Party  feeling 
has  perhaps  never  in  this  country  been  so  bitter,  ex 
cept  just  before  the  Civil  War.  A  series  of  resolutions, 
drawn  up  by  Madison,  was  adopted  in  1798  by  the 
legislature  of  Virginia ;  while  a  similar  series,  still 
more  pronounced,  drawn  up  by  Jefferson,  was  adopted 
in  the  same  year  by  the  legislature  of  Kentucky.  The 
Virginia  resolutions  asserted  with  truth  that,  in  adopt 
ing  the  federal  Constitution,  the  states  had  surrendered 
only  a  limited  portion  of  their  powers ;  and  went  on  to 


THE   CONSTRUCTIVE   STATESMAN  211 

declare  that,  whenever  the  federal  government  should 
exceed  its  constitutional  authority,  it  was  the  business  of 
the  state  governments  to  interfere  and  pronounce  such 
action  unconstitutional.  Accordingly,  Virginia  de 
clared  the  alien  and  sedition  laws  unconstitutional, 
and  invited  the  other  states  to  join  in  the  declaration. 
Not  meeting  with  a  favourable  response,  Virginia  re 
newed  these  resolutions  the  next  year.  There  was 
nothing  necessarily  seditious,  or  tending  toward  seces 
sion,  in  the  Virginia  resolutions ;  but  the  attitude 
assumed  in  them  was  uncalled  for  on  the  part  of  any 
state,  inasmuch  as  there  existed,  in  the  federal  Supreme 
Court,  a  tribunal  competent  to  decide  upon  the  consti 
tutionality  of  acts  of  Congress.  The  Kentucky  reso 
lutions  went  farther.  They  declared  that  our  federal 
Constitution  was  a  compact,  to  which  the  several 
states  were  the  one  party  and  the  federal  government 
was  the  other,  and  each  party  must  decide  for  itself  as 
to  when  the  compact  was  infringed,  and  as  to  the 
proper  remedy  to  be  adopted.  When  the  resolutions 
were  repeated,  in  1799,  a  clause  was  added,  which 
went  still  further  and  mentioned  "  nullification  "  as  the 
suitable  remedy,  and  one  that  any  state  might  employ. 
In  the  Virginia  resolutions  there  was  neither  mention 
nor  intention  of  nullification  as  a  remedy.  Mr.  Madi 
son  lived  to  witness  South  Carolina's  attempt  at  nulli 
fication  in  1832,  and  in  a  very  able  paper,  written  in 
the  last  year  of  his  life,  he  conclusively  refuted  the 
idea  that  his  resolutions  of  1798  afforded  any  justifica 
tion  for  such  an  attempt,  and  showed  that  what  they 
really  contemplated  was  a  protest  on  the  part  of  all  the 
state  governments  in  common.  Doubtless  such  a 
remedy  was  clumsy  and  impracticable,  and  the  sugges- 


212  JAMES   MADISON 

tion  of  it  does  not  deserve  to  be  ranked  along  with 
Mr.  Madison's  best  work  in  constructive  states 
manship  ;  but  it  certainly  contained  no  logical 
basis  for  what  its  author  unsparingly  denounced 
as  the  "  twin  heresies "  of  nullification  and  seces 
sion. 

With  regard  to  the  Kentucky  resolutions  the  case  is 
different.  They  certainly  furnished  a  method  of  stat 
ing  the  case,  as  to  the  relations  between  the  states  and 
the  federal  government,  of  which  Calhoun  afterward 
made  use  in  developing  his  theory  of  nullification. 
There  has  been  much  interesting  discussion  as  to  how 
far  Jefferson  is  to  be  held  responsible  for  this  view. 
But  this  discussion  has  generally  proceeded  upon  the 
tacit  and  perhaps  unconscious  assumption  that  in 
1 798  such  an  idea  as  that  of  nullification  was  a  novel 
heresy,  and  that  in  lending  countenance  to  it,  even  in 
the  slightest  degree,  Jefferson  figured  as  in  some  sense 
the  inventor  of  a  notion  which  bore  fruit  in  the  seces^ 
sion  movement  of  1861  and  the  great  Civil  War.  A 
dispassionate  student  of  history  can  have  no  wish  to 
absolve  Jefferson  or  any  one  else  from  the  proper 
responsibility  for  his  political  acts.  But  the  way  in 
which  this  case  is  usually  stated,  and  still  more  the 
mood  in  which  it  is  apt  to  be  stated,  is  not  strictly 
historical.  It  would  be  more  instructive  to  bear  ,in 
mind  that,  in  1798,  before  Marshall's  career  as  chief 
justice  had  begun,  the  functions  of  the  Supreme  Court 
and  its  efficiency  in  checking  usurpations  of  power 
were  as  yet  mere  matter  of  theory  and  very  imperfectly 
realized  by  the  people  ;  that  the  new  government  was 
as  yet  an  experiment  believed  by  half  the  people  to 
be  a  Very  hazardous  experiment;  that  thus  far  its 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  STATESMAN       213 

administration  had  been  monopolized  by  one  party, 
the  measures  of  which,  even  when  most  beneficial,  had 
been  regarded  with  widespread  distrust  and  dread ; 
and  that  this  distrust  now  seemed  all  at  once  to  be 
justified  by  the  passage  of  laws  that  were  certainly  the 
most  atrocious  in  all  our  history  except  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law.  If  under  these  circumstances  there  were 
some  who  believed  that  a  confederacy  in  which  such 
laws  might  be  nullified  was  preferable  to  a  Union  in 
which  men  might  be  sent  to  jail,  as  under  the  Stuart 
kings,  for  expressing  their  honest  opinions  in  the 
newspapers,  we  ought  not  to  blame  them.  Such  a 
Union  would  not  have  been  worth  the  efforts  that  it 
cost  to  frame  it.  Taught  by  experience,  we  can  now 
see  that  the  fears  expressed  or  implied  in  the  Ken 
tucky  resolutions  were  really  groundless.  But  that 
they  were  so,  that  the  people  were  relieved  of  such  fears 
and  the  public  confidence  restored,  so  that  the  Union 
began  for  the  first  time  to  be  really  loved  and  cherished 
with  a  sentiment. of  loyalty,  was  due  chiefly  to  Jeffer 
son's  election  as  President  in  1800  and  the  conservative 
policy  which  he  thereafter  pursued.  When  the  gov 
ernment  passed  out  of  the  hands  of  the  party  which 
had  enacted  the  alien  and  sedition  laws,  the  dread 
subsided,  and  the  vitality  of  the  Kentucky  resolutions 
was  suspended  until  Calhoun  revived  it  thirty  years 
later.  When  that  new  crisis  came,  the  exigency  was 
such  that,  if  Calhoun  had  not  found  the  letter  of 
these  resolutions  ready  to  hand,  the  sentiment  never 
theless  existed,  out  of  which  he  would  have  made  his 
doctrines. 

In   1799  Madison  was  again  elected  a  member  of 
the   Virginia  legislature,  and   in    1801,  at  Jefferson's 


214  JAMES   MADISON 

urgent  desire,  he  became  Secretary  of  State.  In  accept 
ing  this  appointment,  he  entered  upon  a  new  career,  in 
many  respects  different  from  that  which  he  had  hitherto 
followed.  His  work  as  a  constructive  statesman  — 
which  was  so  great  as  to  place  him  in  the  foremost 
rank  among  the  men  that  have  built  up  nations  —  was 
by  this  time  substantially  completed.  During  the 
next  few  years  the  constitutional  questions  that  had 
hitherto  occupied  him  played  a  part  subordinate  to 
that  played  by  questions  of  foreign  policy,  and  in  this 
new  sphere  Mr.  Madison  was  not,  by  nature  or  train 
ing,  fitted  to  exercise  such  a  controlling  influence  as 
he  had  formerly  brought  to  bear  in  the  framing  of  our 
federal  government.  As  Secretary  of  State,  he  was  an 
able  lieutenant  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  but  his  genius  was 
not  that  of  an  executive  officer  so  much  as  that  of  a 
lawgiver.  He  brought  his  great  historical  and  legal 
learning  to  bear  in  a  paper  entitled  "  An  Examination  of 
the  British  Doctrine  which  subjects  to  Capture  a  Neu 
tral  Trade  not  Open  in  the  Time  of  Peace."  But  the 
troubled  period  that  followed  the  rupture  of  the  treaty 
of  Amiens  was  not  one  in  which  legal  arguments, 
however  masterly,  counted  for  much  in  bringing  angry 
and  insolent  combatants  to  terms.  In  the  gigantic 
struggle  between  England  and  Napoleon,  the  com 
merce  of  the  United  States  was  ground  to  pieces  as 
between  the  upper  and  the  nether  millstone ;  and  in 
some  respects  there  is  no  chapter  in  American  history 
more  painful  for  an  American  citizen  to  read.  The 
outrageous  affair  of  the  Leopard  and  the  Chesapeake 
was  but  the  most  flagrant  of  a  series  of  wrongs 
and  insults,  against  which  Jefferson's  embargo  was 
doubtless  an  absurd  and  feeble  protest,  but  perhaps  at 


THE   CONSTRUCTIVE    STATESMAN  215 

the  same  time  pardonable  as  the  only  weapon  left  us 
in  that  period  of  national  weakness. 

Affairs  were  drawing  slowly  toward  some  kind  of 
crisis  when,  at  the  expiration  of  Jefferson's  second 
term,  Mr.  Madison  was  elected  President  of  the 
United  States  by  122  electoral  votes  against  47  for 
Cotesworth  Pinckney  and  6  for  George  Clinton,  who 
received  113  votes  for  the  vice-presidency,  and  was 
elected  to  that  office.  The  opposition  of  the  New 
England  states  to  the  embargo  had  by  this  time 
brought  about  its  repeal  and  the  substitution  for  it  of 
the  act  declaring  non-intercourse  with  England  and 
France.  By  this  time,  many  of  the  most  intelligent 
Federalists,  including  John  Quincy  Adams,  had  gone 
over  to  the  Republicans.  In  1810  Congress  repealed 
the  non-intercourse  act,  which  as  a  measure  of  intimi 
dation  had  proved  ineffectual.  Congress  now  sought 
to  use  the  threat  of  non-intercourse  as  a  kind  of  bribe, 
and  informed  England  and  France  that  if  either 
nation  would  repeal  its  obnoxious  edicts,  the  non-inter 
course  act  would  be  revived  against  the  other.  Napo 
leon  took  prompt  advantage  of  this,  and  informed  Mr. 
Madison's  government  that  he  revoked  his  Berlin  and 
Milan  decrees  as  far  as  American  ships  were  con 
cerned;  but  at  the  same  time  he  gave  secret  orders 
by  which  the  decrees  were  to  be  practically  enforced 
as  harshly  as  ever.  The  lie  served  its  purpose,  and 
Congress  revived  the  non-intercourse  act  as  against 
Great  Britain  alone.  In  1811  hostilities  began  on 
sea  and  land,  in  the  affair  of  Tippecanoe  and  of 
the  President  and  Little  Belt.  The  growing  desire 
for  war  was  shown  in  the  choice  of  Henry  Clay  for 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  Mr. 


2l6  JAMES   MADISON 

Madison  was  nominated  for  a  second  term,  on  condi 
tion  of  adopting  the  war  policy. 

The  New  England  Federalists  at  once  accused  him 
here  of  proving  recreant  to  his  own  convictions,  and 
the  charge  has  since  been  often  reiterated  by  Federal 
ist  writers.  Perhaps  it  would  be  more  correct  to  say 
that,  as  to  the  question  of  the  advisableness  of  declar 
ing  war  against  England,  he  did  not  share  in  the 
decided  convictions  of  Clay  and  Calhoun  on  the  one 
hand  or  of  the  New  England  leaders  on  the  other. 
His  mind  was  more  evenly  balanced,  and  his  natural 
inclinations  led  him  to  shrink  from  war  so  long  as  any 
other  policy  was  available.  As  to  the  entire  justice 
of  the  war,  on  our  side,  there  could  of  course  be  no 
doubt.  No  one  called  it  in  question  except  a  few 
superannuated  Federalists  in  New  England.  The 
only  question  was  as  to  whether  a  war  policy  was  prac 
ticable  at  that  moment,  and  on  this  point,  in  yielding 
to  the  arguments  of  Clay  and  Calhoun,  if  Mr.  Madi 
son  sacrificed  convictions,  they  were  certainly  not 
convictions  that  were  deeply  rooted.  He  did  not 
approach  such  questions  in  the  mood  of  an  Andrew 
Jackson,  but  in  the  mood  of  a  philosopher,  who  hesi 
tates  and  acts  sometimes  in  a  yielding  to  pressure 
of  argument  that  is  akin  to  weakness.  On  June  18, 
1812,  war  was  declared,  and  before  the  autumn  elec 
tion  a  series  of  remarkable  naval  victories  had  made 
it  popular.  Mr.  Madison  was  reflected  by  128  elec 
toral  votes,  against  89  for  De  Witt  Clinton  of  New 
York.  The  one  absorbing  event,  which  filled  the 
greater  part  of  his  second  term,  was  the  war  with 
Great  Britain,  which  was  marked  by  some  brilliant 
victories  and  some  grave  disasters,  including  the  cap- 


THE   CONSTRUCTIVE   STATESMAN  217 

ture  of  Washington  by  British  troops  and  the  flight 
of  the  government  from  the  national  capital.  What 
ever  opinion  may  be  held  as  to  the  character  of  the 
war  and  its  results,  there  is  a  general  agreement  that 
its  management,  on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  was 
feeble.  Mr.  Madison  was  essentially  a  man  of  peace, 
and  as  the  manager  of  a  great  war  he  was  conspicu 
ously  out  of  his  element.  The  history  of  that  war 
plays  a  great  part  in  the  biographies  of  the  military 
and  naval  heroes  that  figured  in  it;  it  is  a  cardinal 
event  in  the  career  of  Andrew  Jackson  or  Isaac 
Hull.  In  the  biography  of  Madison  it  is  an  episode, 
which  may  be  passed  over  briefly.  The  greatest  part 
of  his  career  was  finished  before  he  held  the  highest 
offices ;  his  immortal  renown  will  rest  chiefly  or  en 
tirely  upon  what  he  did  before  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

After  the  close  of  his  second  term,  in  1817,  Mr. 
Madison  retired  to  his  estate  at  Montpelier,  where  he 
spent  nearly  twenty  happy  years  with  books  and  friends. 
This  sweet  and  tranquil  old  age  he  had  well  earned  by 
services  to  his  fellow-creatures  such  as  it  is  given  to 
but  few  men  to  render.  Among  intelligent  students 
of  history,  there  is  no  one  now  who  would  dispute  his 
claim  to  be  ranked  beside  Washington,  Hamilton,  Jef 
ferson,  and  Marshall  in  the  founding  of  our  nation. 
But  his  part  was  peculiar.  Of  all  these  great  men, 
he  was  preeminently  the  modest  scholar  and  the 
profound  thinker.  There  was  just  one  moment  at 
which  he  was  the  greatest  of  all,  and  that  was  the  mo 
ment  when  his  grand  path-breaking  idea  was  presented 
to  the  federal  convention  in  the  shape  of  the  Vir 
ginia  plan.  The  idea  of  the  twofold  government,  so 


2l8  JAMES  MADISON 

simple  now,  so  abstruse  then,  was  Madison's  idea. 
And  it  was  the  central  idea,  the  fruitful  idea,  something 
which  every  one  else  would  have  missed,  that  we  owe 
to  this  quiet,  unassuming,  unpicturesque  little  man, 
—  this  acute  thinker  and  rare  constructive  genius,  — 
James  Madison. 


VI 

ANDREW  JACKSON 
FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER 


VI 

ANDREW  JACKSON 

FRONTIERSMAN  AND   SOLDIER 

IN  one  of  the  debates  on  the  Oregon  question  in  the 
United  States  Senate,  about  five  and  fifty  years  ago, 
Senator  McDufHe  of  South  Carolina  laughed  to  scorn 
the  idea  that  such  a  remote  country  as  Oregon  could 
ever  be  of  the  slightest  use  to  us.  Just  imagine  a  state, 
said  he,  the  representatives  from  which  would  require  the 
whole  of  the  year  to  get  to  Washington  and  back !  It 
was  because  of  this  short-sightedness,  which  was  shared 
by  all  our  Eastern  statesmen,  that  we  consented  to 
divide  the  disputed  territory  with  Great  Britain.  If 
our  government  could  only  then  have  followed  the 
wise  and  bold  advice  of  the  far-sighted  Benton,  the 
whole  of  that  magnificent  country  now  known  as  Brit 
ish  Columbia  might  have  been  ours,  and  in  all  prob 
ability  without  a  war. 

But  if  those  statesmen  who  thought  the  northern 
Pacific  coast  not  worth  fighting  for  seem  narrow- 
minded,  what  shall  be  said  of  the  views  expressed  by 
Gouverneur  Morris  in  the  convention  that  framed  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States?  Morris  was  not 
only  one  of  the  most  brilliant  men  in  that  wonderful 
convention,  but  as  far  as  the  original  thirteen  states 
were  concerned  he  was  inclined  to  broad  and  liberal 
views.  But  when  it  came  to  the  imperial  domain  com- 


221 


222  ANDREW  JACKSON 

prised  between  the  Alleghany  Mountains  and  the  Mis 
sissippi  River,  the  country  which  the  superb  diplomacy 
of  Adams  and  Jay  had  secured  for  us  in  the  treaty  of 
1 783,  that  was  for  Gouverneur  Morris  nothing  but  back 
woods.  He  wanted  to  have  the  Constitution  so  framed 
that  this  region  should  forever  be  kept  subordinate  to 
the  Atlantic  States.  It  would  never  do,  he  said,  to 
intrust  too  much  legislative  power  to  illiterate  back- 
country  people ;  it  needed  the  wisdom  that  is  found  in 
cities  and  in  polite  society  to  hold  them  in  check  and 
prevent  them  from  rilling  the  statute  book  with  absurd 
and  dangerous  laws.  It  was  gravely  to  be  feared  that 
the  population  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  might  by  and 
by  come  to  exceed  that  of  the  Atlantic  coast ;  and  ac 
cordingly  this  descendant  of  New  York  patroons  desired 
that  some  provision  should  be  made  by  which  in  such 
an  event  the  minority  might  rule.  It  does  not  seem 
to  have  occurred  to  him  that,  when  the  dreaded  day 
should  arrive,  this  back-country  people  would  occupy 
a  central  position  and  have  great  cities  and  polite 
society  of  their  own,  with  views  as  much  entitled  to 
consideration  as  anybody's. 

These  suggestions  of  Gouverneur  Morris  were  too 
impracticable  to  meet  with  much  favour  in  the  con 
vention,  but  the  feeling  which  prompted  them  was 
common  enough  at  that  time  and  is  not  yet  quite 
extinct.  It  is  only  by  slow  degrees  that  the  American 
people  have  outgrown  this  old  aristocratic  notion  that 
political  power  ought  to  be  confined  to  certain  groups 
or  classes  of  persons  who,  for  one  reason  or  another, 
are  supposed  to  be  best  fitted  to  exercise  it.  The 
Americans  of  1787  were  not  so  very  unlike  their  Brit 
ish  cousins  in  their  way  of  looking  at  such  matters, 


FRONTIERSMAN    AND    SOLDIER  223 

and  this  was  especially  true  of  the  Federalist  leaders, 
such  as  Hamilton,  John  Adams,  Pickering,  the  Pinck- 
neys,  and  to  some  extent  even  Washington.  But  for 
the  wholesome  counter-influence  of  such  men  as  Jef 
ferson  and  Gallatin,  the  political  structure  reared  in 
1787  \vould  have  rested  upon  too  narrow  a  basis.  For 
the  thorough  development  of  American  democracy, 
however,  a  second  struggle  with  the  wilderness  seems 
to  have  been  needed.  The  pure  American  spirit  first 
came  to  maturity  in  the  breasts  of  that  rugged  popula 
tion  that  since  the  days  of  Daniel  Boone  and  James 
Robertson  had  been  pouring  down  the  western  slope 
of  the  Alleghanies  and  making  the  beginnings  of  the 
two  great  commonwealths,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee. 
These  were  states  that  from  the  outset  owed  no  alle 
giance  to  a  sovereign  power  beyond  the  ocean.  Their 
affairs  were  never  administered  by  British  officials, 
and  from  the  first  moment  of  their  existence  as  organ 
ized  communities,  Great  Britain  was  to  them  a  foreign 
country.  The  importance  of  this  new  development 
for  a  long  time  passed  unnoticed  by  the  older  commu 
nities  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  especially  by  the  New 
England  states,  which  were  the  most  remote  from  it 
alike  in  geographical  position  and  in  social  structure. 
For  a  long  time  there  was  a  feeling  about  the  Western 
country  and  its  inhabitants  not  unlike  that  to  which 
Gouverneur  Morris  gave  expression.  There  was  an 
ignorant  superciliousness,  such  as  some  Englishmen 
are  still  found  to  entertain  toward  the  United  States 
as  a  whole.  This  feeling  has  been  apt  to  colour  the 
books  on  American  history  written  by  Eastern  men. 
With  the  best  of  intentions,  and  without  the  least  sus 
picion  of  the  narrowness  of  their  views,  such  writers, 


224  ANDREW   JACKSON 

while  freely  admitting  the  vastness  and  strength  of  the 
Western  country,  and  the  picturesqueness  of  its  annals, 
have  utterly  failed  to  comprehend  the  importance  of 
its  share  in  the  political  development  of  the  American 
nation.  There  could  be  no  better  illustration  of  this 
than  the  crudeness  of  the  opinions  current  in  our  liter 
ature  and  taught  in  our  text-books  concerning  the 
career  of  Andrew  Jackson,  the  first  American  citizen 
who  crossed  the  Alleghanies  to  take  his  seat  in  the 
White  House. 

In  studying  the  life  of  this  great  man,  we  must  first 
observe  the  characteristics  of  the  people  among  whom 
his  earlier  years  were  spent,  and  of  whom  he  was  to 
such  a  marked  degree  the  representative  and  leader. 
So  much  has  been  said  about  the  great  influence  of 
New  England  in  determining  the  character  of  the 
West  that  we  must  be  careful  not  to  forget  that  in 
point  of  time  that  influence  has  been  distinctly  second 
ary.  It  was  Virginia,  together  with  the  mountain  dis 
tricts  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  Carolinas,  that  first 
determined  the  character  of  the  West.  Before  the 
overflow  of  population  from  New  England  could 
make  much  impression  upon  the  Western  territory,  it 
had  a  great  work  to  do  in  occupying  rural  New  York. 
While  people  in  Connecticut  were  still  speaking  of 
Syracuse  and  Rochester  as  "  out  West,"  the  pioneers 
from  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  had  built  their  log 
cabins  on  bluffs  overlooking  the  Mississippi.  A  little 
later  this  powerful  Southern  swarm  passed  on  into 
Missouri  and  Arkansas,  and  even  invaded  the  North 
western  Territory,  where  its  influence  was  seen  in 
repeated  attempts,  on  the  part  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  regions  since  known  as  Indiana  and  Illinois,  to 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  225 

persuade  Congress  to  repeal  the  antislavery  clause  of 
the  Ordinance  of  1787.  In  this  Southern  stream  of 
westward  migration  three  distinct  currents  were  dis 
cernible.  There  were,  first,  the  representatives  of  old 
Virginia  families  moving  on  parallels  of  latitude  across 
Kentucky  and  into  Missouri,  as  fine  a  race  of  men  as 
can  be  found  in  the  world,  and  always  fruitful  in  able 
and  gallant  leaders.  In  the  second  place,  there  were 
the  poor  whites,  or  descendants  of  the  outlaws  and 
indented  white  servants  of  the  seventeenth  century  in 
Virginia;  we  find  them  moving  across  Tennessee  into 
southern  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  while  some  of  them 
made  their  way  into  Indiana  and  the  Egyptian  dis 
trict  of  Illinois.'  For  the  most  part  these  men  were 
an  unprogressive,  thriftless,  and  turbulent  element  in 
society.  Thirdly,  the  men  who,  perhaps  more  than 
any  others,  gave  to  the  young  West  its  character  were 
the  hardy  mountaineers  of  the  Alleghany  region.  If 
one  were  required  to  give  a  recipe  for  compounding 
the  most  masterful  race  of  men  that  can  be  imagined, 
one  could  hardly  do  better  than  say,  "  To  a  very  lib 
eral  admixture  of  Scotch  and  Scotch-Irish  with  Eng 
lish  stock,  with  a  considerable  infusion  of  Huguenot, 
add  a  trace  of  Swiss  and  Welsh,  and  set  the  whole 
to  work  for  half  a  century  hewing  down  the  forest  and 
waging  an  exterminating  warfare  with  Indians."  From 
their  forefathers  in  the  highlands  of  Britain  these  sturdy 
pioneers  inherited  an  appreciation  of  the  virtues  of 
mountain  dew,  and  the  westward  march  of  American 
civilization  has  been  at  all  times  heralded  by  the  rude 
temples  of  that  freakish  spirit,  until  the  placid  German 
has  followed  in  his  turn,  with  the  milder  rites  of  Gam- 
brinus.  In  religion  these  men  were,  for  the  most 
Q 


226  ANDREW  JACKSON 

part,  Puritan.  There  cannot  be  a  greater  error  than 
to  speak  of  American  Puritanism  as  peculiar  to  New 
England.  That  which  was  peculiar  to  the  New  Eng 
land  colonies  was  not  the  simple  fact  of  Puritanism, 
but  the  manner  in  which  that  Puritanism  dominated 
their  social  structure  and  determined  their  political 
attitude.  Their  origin  dates  from  the  time  when  the 
Puritan  idea  was  seeking  to  incarnate  itself  in  a  theo 
cratic  form  of  government.  That  is  what  has  given 
to  New  England  its  distinctive  character.  As  for 
Puritanism,  regarded  as  an  affair  of  temperament, 
belief,  and  mental  habit,  it  has  always  been  widely 
diffused  throughout  English-speaking  America.  There 
was  a  rather  strong  infusion  of  it  in  Maryland,  and  a 
very  strong  one  in  South  Carolina;  and  nowhere  do 
we  find  the  Puritan  spirit,  with  its  virtues  and  its 
faults,  its  intensity  and  its  narrowness,  more  conspicu 
ously  manifested  than  in  those  children  of  English 
dissenters  and  Scottish  covenanters  and  Huguenot 
refugees  that  went  forth  from  the  Alleghanies  to  colo 
nize  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Originally  their  theology 
was  Calvinistic,  but  during  the  latter  part  of  the  eigh 
teenth  century  a  great  wave  of  Wesleyanism  swept 
over  this  part  of  the  country,  and  Baptist  preachers 
also  made  many  converts. 

Devout  religious  sentiment,  in  this  pioneer  society, 
did  not  succeed  in  preventing  a  great  deal  of  turbu 
lence  ;  and  herein  we  find  a  contrast  with  early  New 
England,  which  has  in  later  times  left  its  traces  far  and 
wide  upon  the  habits  and  manners  of  different  parts 
of  the  United  States.  Where  the  early  settler  of 
Connecticut  or  Massachusetts  would  seek  redress  for 
an  injury  by  appealing  to  a  court  of  justice,  the  early 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  227 

settler  of  Tennessee  or  Kentucky  would  be  very  likely 
to  take  the  law  into  his  own  hands.  From  this  have 
come  the  vendettas,  the  street  righting,  the  lynch  law, 
so  conspicuous  in  the  history  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  a  chief  cause  of  this 
difference  between  New  England  and  the  Southwest  is 
to  be  found  in  a  difference  in  the  methods  by  which 
the  two  regions  were  settled.  Rarely,  if  ever,  in  New 
England  did  individuals  or  families  advance  singly 
into  the  forest  to  make  new  homes  for  themselves. 
The  migration  was  always  a  migration  of  organized 
communities.  Town  budded  from  town,  as  in  ancient 
Greece ;  and  the  outermost  town  in  the  skirts  of  the 
wilderness  carried  with  it,  not  only  the  strict  disci 
pline  of  church  and  schoolhouse,  but  also  the  whole 
apparatus  of  courts  and  judges,  jails  and  constables, 
complete  and  efficient.  This  was  the  peculiar  fea 
ture  of  the  settlement  of  New  England  that  saved 
it  from  the  turbulence  usually  characteristic  of  frontier 
communities.  When  people  can  obtain  justice,  with 
reasonable  certainty  and  promptness,  at  the  hands  of 
the  law,  they  are  not  likely  to  be  tempted  to  take  the 
law  into  their  own  hands.  The  turbulence  among 
our  Western  pioneers  was  only  an  ordinary  instance 
of  what  happens  on  frontiers  where  for  a  time  the 
bonds  that  hold  together  the  complicated  framework 
of  society  are  somewhat  loosened. 

This  hardy  population,  which  thrust  itself  into  all 
parts  of  the  West,  from  the  prairies  of  Illinois  to  the 
highlands  of  northern  Alabama,  was  intensely  Ameri 
can  and  intensely  national  in  its  feelings.  These 
people  differed  from  the  planters  of  South  Carolina  or 
Louisiana  almost  as  much  as  from  the  merchants  and 


228  ANDREW   JACKSON 

yeomanry  of  New  England  and  New  York,  and  when 
by  and  by  the  stress  of  civil  war  came,  they  were  the 
stout  ligament  that  held  the  Union  together.  They 
were,  in  a  certain  measure,  set  free  from  the  excessive 
attachment  to  a  state  government  which  was  so  liable 
to  mislead  the  dweller  in  the  older  communities.  The 
governments  of  the  seaboard  states  were  older  than 
the  federal  Union  ;  but  the  states  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies  were  created  by  the  federal  Union,  and  their 
people  felt  toward  it  a  strong  sense  of  allegiance. 
It  was  sufficient  in  1861  to  keep  Missouri  and  Ken 
tucky,  with  portions  of  Tennessee  and  Virginia,  from 
joining  the  Southern  Confederacy,  which  was  thus 
seriously  truncated  and  lamed  at  the  very  start. 

These  considerations  will  help  us  to  understand  the 
remarkable  career  of  Andrew  Jackson.  His  personal 
characteristics  were  in  large  measure  the  characteristics 
of  the  community  in  which  he  lived.  There  was  the 
intense  Americanism,  the  contempt  for  things  foreign, 
the  love  for  the  Union,  the  iron  tenacity  of  purpose, 
the  promptness  in  redressing  his  own  grievances,  the 
earnest  Puritan  spirit.  Some  of  these  characteristics 
in  Jackson,  as  in  his  neighbours,  came  naturally  by 
inheritance.  Of  all  the  pugnacious  and  masterful, 
single-minded,  conscientious,  and  obstinate  Puritans 
that  have  ever  lived  in  any  country,  the  first  place 
must  doubtless  be  assigned  to  those  Scotchmen  and 
Yorkshiremen  who  went  over  to  Ulster  and  settled 
there  in  the  reign  of  James  I.  Perhaps  it  was  the 
constant  knocking  against  Irish  Catholicism  that 
hammered  them  out  so  hard.  A  good  many  of  them 
came  to  America  in  the  course  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury, 'and  among  these  was  Andrew  Jackson  of  Car- 


FRONTIERSMAN    AND    SOLDIER  2 29 

rickfergus,  son  of  Hugh  Jackson,  linen-draper.  An 
drew's  wife  was  Elizabeth  Hutchinson,  and  her  family 
were  linen-weavers.  They  came  to  America  in  1765, 
the  year  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  before  two  years  had 
passed  Andrew  Jackson  died,  only  a  few  days  before 
the  birth  of  his  famous  son. 

The  log  cabin  in  which  the  future  President  was 
born,  on  the  I5th  of  March,  1767,  was  situated  within 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  the  boundary  between  the  twro 
Carolinas,  and  the  people  of  the  neighbourhood  do  not 
seem  to  have  had  a  clear  idea  as  to  which  province  it 
belonged.  In  a  letter  of  the  24th  of  December,  1 830,  in 
the  proclamation  addressed  to  the  nullifiers  in  1832, 
and  again  in  his  will,  General  Jackson  speaks  of  him 
self  as  a  native  of  South  Carolina;  but  the  evidence 
adduced  by  Parton  seems  to  show  that  the  birthplace 
may  have  been  north  .of  the  border.  Three  weeks 
after  the  birth  of  her  son,  Mrs.  Jackson  moved  to  the 
house  of  her  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Crawford,  just  over 
the  border  in  South  Carolina,  near  the  Waxhaw  Creek, 
and  there  Andrew's  early  years  were  passed.  His 
education,  obtained  in  an  "  old-field  school,"  consisted 
of  little  more  than  the  "three  R's,"  and  even  in  that 
limited  sphere  his  attainments  were  but  scanty.  His 
career  as  a  fighter  began  early.  In  the  spring  and 
summer  of  1780,  after  the  disastrous  surrender  of 
Lincoln's  army  at  Charleston,  the  whole  of  South 
Carolina  was  overrun  by  the  British.  On  the  6th 
of  August  Jackson  was  present  at  Hanging  Rock, 
when  Sumter  surprised  and  destroyed  a  British  regi 
ment.  Two  of  his  brothers,  as  well  as  his  mother, 
died  from  hardships  sustained  in  the  war.  In  after 
years  he  could  remember  how  he  had  been,  carried  as 


230  ANDREW   JACKSON 

prisoner  to  Camden  and  nearly  starved  there,  and  how 
a  brutal  officer  had  cut  him  with  a  sword  because  he 
refused  to  clean  his  boots ;  these  reminiscences  kept 
alive  his  hatred  for  the  British,  and  doubtless  gave 
unction  to  the  tremendous  blow  that  he  dealt  them  at 
New  Orleans.  In  1781,  left  quite  alone  in  the  world, 
he  was  apprenticed  for  a  while  to  a  saddler.  At  one 
time  he  is  said  to  have  done  a  little  teaching  in  an 
"  old-field  school."  At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  entered 
the  law  office  of  Spruce  McCay  in  Salisbury.  While 
there  he  was  said  to  have  been  "  the  most  roaring, 
rollicking,  game-cocking,  horse-racing,  card-playing, 
mischievous  fellow  "  that  had  ever  been  seen  in  that 
town.  Many  and  plentiful  were  the  wild-oat  crops 
sown  at  that  time ;  and  in  such  sort  of  agriculture 
young  Jackson  seems  to  have  been  more  proficient 
than  in  the  study  of  jurisprudence.  But  in  that 
frontier  society  a  small  amount  of  legal  knowledge 
went  a  good  way,  and  in  1 788  he  was  appointed  public 
prosecutor  for  the  western  district  of  North  Carolina, 
the  district  since  erected  into  the  state  of  Tennessee. 
The  emigrant  wagon  train  in  which  Jackson  journeyed 
to  Nashville  carried  news  of  the  ratification  of  the 
federal  Constitution  by  the  requisite  two-thirds  of  the 
states.  He  seems  soon  to  have  found  business  enough. 
In  the  April  term  of  1790,  out  of  192  cases  on  the 
dockets  of  the  county  court  at  Nashville,  Jackson  was 
employed  as  counsel  in  42.  In  the  year  1794,  out  of 
397  cases  he  acted  as  counsel  in  228,  while  at  the 
same  time  he  was  practising  his  profession  in  the 
courts  of  other  counties.  The  great  number  of  these 
cases  is  an  indication  of  their  trivial  character.  As  a 
general  rule  they  were  either  actions  growing  out  of 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  231 

disputed  land  claims,  or  simple  cases  of  assault  and 
battery.  Court  day  was  a  great  occasion  in  that  wild 
community,  bringing  crowds  of  men  into  the  county 
town  to  exchange  gossip,  discuss  politics,  drink 
whiskey,  and  break  heads.  Probably  each  court  day 
produced  as  many  new  cases  as  it  settled.  Amid  such 
a  turbulent  population  the  public  prosecutor  must 
needs  be  a  man  of  nerve  and  resource.  Jackson 
proved  himself  quite  equal  to  the  task  of  introducing 
law  and  order,  in  so  far  as  it  depended  on  him.  "  Just 
inform  Mr.  Jackson,"  said  Governor  Blount,  when 
sundry  malfeasances  were  reported  to  him  ;  "  he  will  be 
sure  to  do  his  duty,  and  the  offenders  will  be  punished." 
Besides  the  lawlessness  of  the  white  pioneer  popula 
tion,  there  was  the  enmity  of  the  Indians  to  be  reckoned 
with.  In  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Nashville 
the  Indians  murdered  on  the  average  one  person  every 
ten  days.  From  1788  to  1795  Jackson  performed  the 
journey  of  nearly  two  hundred  miles  between  Nash 
ville  and  Jonesboro  twenty-two  times;  and  on  these 
occasions  there  were  many  alarms  from  Indians  which 
sometimes  grew  into  quite  a  forest  campaign.  In  one 
of  these  affairs,  having  nearly  lost  his  life  in  an  adven 
turous  feat,  Jackson  is  said  to  have  made  the  charac 
teristic  remark,  "  A  miss  is  as  good  as  a  mile ;  you  see 
how  near  a  man  can  graze  danger."  It  was  this  wild 
experience  that  prepared  the  way  for  Jackson's  emi 
nence  as  an  Indian  fighter.  In  the  autumn  of  1794 
the  Cherokees  were  so  thoroughly  punished  by  General 
Robertson's  famous  Nickajack  expedition  that  hence 
forth  they  thought  it  best  to  leave  the  Tennessee 
settlements  in  peace.  With  the  rapid  increase  of  the 
white  population  which  soon  followed,  the  community 


232  ANDREW   JACKSON 

became  more  prosperous  and  more  orderly;  and  in 
the  general  prosperity  Jackson  had  an  ample  share, 
partly  through  the  diligent  practice  of  his  profession, 
partly  through  judicious  purchase  and  sales  of  land. 

With  most  men  marriage  is  the  most  important 
event  of  life ;  in  Jackson's  career  his  marriage  was 
peculiarly  important.  Rachel  Donelson  was  a  native 
of  North  Carolina,  daughter  of  Colonel  John  Donel 
son,  a  Virginia  surveyor  in  good  circumstances,  who 
in  1 780  migrated  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Nashville  in 
a  very  remarkable  boat  journey  of  two  thousand  miles, 
down  the  Holston  and  Tennessee  rivers,  and  up  the 
Cumberland.  During  an  expedition  to  Kentucky 
some  time  afterward,  the  blooming  Rachel  was 
wooed  and  won  by  Captain  Lewis  Robards.  She  was 
a  sprightly  girl,  the  best  horsewoman  and  best  dancer 
in  that  country ;  she  was,  moreover,  a  person  of  strong 
character,  excellent  heart,  and  most  sincere  piety ;  her 
husband  was  a  young  man  of  tyrannical  and  unreason 
ably  jealous  disposition.  In  Kentucky  they  lived  with 
Mrs.  Robards,  the  husband's  mother;  and,  as  was 
common  in  a  new  society  where  houses  were  too  few 
and  far  between,  there  were  other  boarders  in  the 
family, — among  them  Judge  Overton  of  Tennessee 
and  a  Mr.  Stone.  Presently  Robards  made  complaints 
against  his  wife,  in  which  he  implicated  Stone.  He 
was  even  so  abusive  that  his  wife  became  an  object  of 
sympathy  to  the  whole  neighbourhood,  and  every  one, 
including  Captain  Robards's  own  mother,  condemned 
his  behaviour.  He  had  already  quarrelled  with  his 
wife  and  sent  her  home  to  Nashville  before  Jackson 
became  acquainted  with  her.  Presently  there  was  a 
reconciliation,  and  Robards  came  to  live  in  Nashville. 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  233 

The  next  object  of  his  jealousy  was  Jackson.  There 
is  superabundant  testimony  that  the  conduct  of  the 
latter  was  quite  above  reproach.  One  of  the  most 
winsome  features  in  Jackson's  character  was  his  sin 
cere  and  chivalrous  respect  for  women.  He  was  also 
peculiarly  susceptible  to  the  feeling  of  keen  sympathy 
for  persons  in  distress.  Robards  presently  left  his 
wife  and  went  to  Kentucky,  threatening  by  and  by  to 
return  and  make  her  life  miserable.  His  temper  was 
so  ugly  and  his  threats  so  atrocious  that  Mrs.  Robards 
was  frightened,  and  in  order  to  get  quite  out  of  his 
way,  she  made  up  her  mind  to  visit  some  friends  at 
distant  Natchez.  In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  with 
which  the  whole  neighbourhood  seems  to  have  con 
curred,  she  went  down  the  river  in  company  with  the 
venerable  Colonel  Stark  and  his  family.  As  the  Ind 
ians  were  just  then  on  the  war-path,  Jackson  accom 
panied  the  party  with  an  armed  escort,  returning  to 
Nashville  as  soon  as  he  had  seen  his  friends  safely 
deposited  at  Natchez.  While  these  things  were  going 
on,  the  proceedings  of  Captain  Robards  were  charac 
terized  by  a  sort  of  Machiavellian  astuteness.  In  1791 
Kentucky  was  still  a  part  of  Virginia,  and  according 
to  the  code  of  the  Old  Dominion,  if  a  husband  wished 
to  obtain  a  divorce,  he  must  procure  an  act  of  the 
legislature  empowering  him  to  bring  his  case  before  a 
jury,  and  authorizing  a  divorce  conditionally  upon  the 
jury's  finding  the  proper  verdict.  Early  in  1791  Rob 
ards  obtained  the  preliminary  act  of  the  legislature 
upon  his  declaration  that  his  wife  had  run  away  with 
Jackson.  He  then  deferred  further  action  for  more 
than  two  years.  Meanwhile  it  was  reported  and  be 
lieved  in  the  West  that  a  divorce  had  been  granted ; 


234  ANDREW  JACKSON 

probably  Robards  himself  helped  spread  the  report. 
Acting  upon  this  information,  Jackson,  whose  chival 
rous  interest  in  Mrs.  Robards's  misfortunes  had  ripened 
into  sincere  affection,  went  in  the  summer  of  1791  to 
Natchez  and  married  her  there,  and  brought  her  to 
his  home  at  Nashville.  In  the  autumn  of  1793  Cap 
tain  Robards,  on  the  strength  of  the  facts  which  unde 
niably  existed  since  the  act  of  the  Virginia  legislature, 
brought  his  case  into  court  and  obtained  the  verdict 
completing  the  divorce.  On  hearing  of  this,  to  his 
intense  surprise,  in  December,  Jackson  concluded  that 
the  best  method  of  preventing  future  cavil  was  to  pro 
cure  a  new  license  and  have  the  marriage  ceremony 
performed  again  ;  and  this  was  done  in  January.  Jack 
son  was  doubtless  to  blame  for  not  taking  more  care 
to  ascertain  the  import  of  the  act  of  the  Virginia  legis 
lature.  It  was  a  carelessness  peculiarly  striking  in  a 
lawyer.  The  irregularity  of  the  marriage  was  indeed 
atoned  by  forty  years  of  honourable  and  happy  wed 
lock,  ending  only  with  Mrs.  Jackson's  death  in  Decem 
ber,  1828;  and  no  blame  was  ever  attached  to  the 
parties  in  Nashville,  where  all  the  circumstances 
were  well  known.  But  the  story,  half-understood, 
maliciously  warped,  and  embellished  with  gratuitous 
fictions,  grew  into  scandal  as  it  was  passed  about 
among  Jackson's  personal  enemies  or  political  oppo 
nents;  and  herein  some  of  the  bitterest  of  his  many 
quarrels  had  their  source.  His  devotion  to  Mrs.  Jack 
son  was  intense,  and  his  loaded  pistol  was  always  kept 
ready  for  the  rash  man  who  should  dare  to  speak  of 
her  slightingly. 

In   January,    1796,  we  find   Jackson  sitting  in  the 
convention  assembled  at  Knoxville  for  making  a  con- 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND    SOLDIER  235 

stitution  for  Tennessee,  and  tradition  has  it  that  he 
proposed  the  name  of  the  great  crooked  river  as  the 
name  for  the  new  state.  Among  the  rules  adopted  by 
the  convention,  one  is  quaintly  significant:  "  He  that 
digresseth  from  the  subject  to  fall  on  the  person  of 
any  member  shall  be  suppressed  by  the  Speaker." 
The  admission  of  Tennessee  to  the  Union  was  effected 
in  June,  1796,  in  spite  of  vehement  opposition  from 
the  Federalists,  and  in  the  autumn  Jackson  was  chosen 
as  the  single  representative  in  Congress.  Thus  at  the 
age  of  twenty-nine  he  received  substantial  proof  of 
the  high  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  his  fellow- 
citizens.  When  the  House  had  assembled,  he  heard 
President  Washington  deliver  in  person  his  last  mes 
sage  to  Congress.  His  first  act  as  a  representative 
was  characteristic  and  prophetic ;  he  was  one  of  the 
twelve  extreme  Republicans  who  voted  against  the 
adoption  of  the  address  to  Washington  in  approval  of 
his  administration.  Jackson's  two  great  objections  to» 
Washington's  government  were  directed  against  Jay's, 
treaty  with  Great  Britain  and  Hamilton's  national 
bank.  His  feeling  toward  the  Jay  treaty  was  that  of 
a  man  who  could  not  bear  to  see  anything  but  blows 
dealt  to  Great  Britain,  and  it  was  entirely  in  harmony 
with  the  fierce  spirit  of  Americanism  growing  up 
behind  the  Alleghanies,  which  was  by  and  by  to  drive 
the  country  into  war.  When  one  remembers  the 
insolence  of  the  British  government  in  those  years,  in 
refusing  to  fulfil  treaty  obligations  and  surrender  the 
northwestern  fortresses,  in  trying  to  cut  off  our  trade 
with  the  West  Indies,  in  impressing  our  seamen,  and 
in  neglecting  to  send  a  minister  to  the  United  States, 
one  thoroughly  sympathizes  with  Jackson's  feeling. 


236  ANDREW   JACKSON 

At  the  same  time  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  Washington 
was  right  in  insisting  upon  the  ratification  of  the  Jay 
treaty.  It  did  not  give  us  much  satisfaction,  but  at 
that  moment,  and  until  our  new  government  should 
have  become  firmly  established,  anything  was  better 
than  war.  A  good  commentary  on  the  soundness  of 
Washington's  conduct  was  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
the  British  were  almost  as  much  disgusted  with  the 
treaty  as  we  were.  When  war  was  at  length  declared, 
in  1812,  Lord  Sheffield  said  they  would  now  be 
revenged  upon  the  Yankees  for  the  concessions 
extorted  by  Jay.  That  it  did  not  turn  out  so  was 
partly  due  to  the  valour  of  the  young  man  who  now 
sat  chafing  at  Washington's  moderation.  Jackson's 
other  objection  shows  that  even  at  that  early  day  he 
felt  that  banking  is  not  a  part  of  the  legitimate  busi 
ness  of  government.  The  year  1797  was  a  season  of 
financial  depression,  and  the  general  paralysis  of  busi 
ness  was  ascribed  —  perhaps  too  exclusively  —  to  the 
overissue  of  notes  by  the  national  bank.  Jackson's 
antipathy  to  that  institution  was  nourished  by  what  he 
saw  and  heard  at  Philadelphia.  Of  his  other  votes  in 
this  Congress,  one  was  for  an  appropriation  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  Sevier's  expedition  against  the  Chero- 
kees,  which  was  carried ;  three  others  were  eminently 
wise  and  characteristic  of  the  man :  — 

1.  For  finishing  the  three  frigates   then    building, 
and  destined  to  such  imperishable  renown,  the  Consti 
tution,  Constellation,  and  United  States. 

2.  Against    the   further  payment  of   blackmail    to 
Algiers. 

3.  'Against  removing  "the   restriction   which  con- 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  237 

fined  the  expenditure  of  public  money  to  the  specific 
objects  for  which  each  sum  was  appropriated." 

Three  such  votes  as  that,  in  one  Congress,  make  a 
noble  record.  Another  vote,  foolish  in  itself,  was 
characteristic  of  a  representative  from  the  backwoods. 
It  was  against  the  presumed  extravagance  of  appro 
priating  $14,000  to  buy  furniture  for  the  newly  built 
White  House.  Jackson's  course  throughout  was 
warmly  approved  by  his  constituents,  and  in  the  fol 
lowing  summer  he  was  chosen  to  fill  a  vacancy  in  the 
federal  Senate.  Of  his  conduct  as  senator  little  is 
known  beyond  the  remark  made  by  Jefferson  in  1824 
to  Daniel  Webster,  that  he  had  often,  when  presiding 
in  the  Senate,  seen  the  passionate  Jackson  get  up 
to  speak  and  then  choke  with  rage  so  that  he  could 
not  utter  a  word.  One  need  not  wonder  at  this  if  one 
remembers  what  was  the  subject  most  frequently 
brought  up  for  discussion  in  the  Senate  during  the 
winter  of  1 797-1 798.  The  outrageous  insolence  of  the 
French  Directory  was  enough  to  arouse  the  wrath  of 
a  far  tamer  and  less  patriotic  spirit  than  Jackson's. 
It  is  almost  enough  to  make  one  choke  with  rage  now, 
in  reading  about  it  after  one  hundred  years.  At  any 
rate  it  is  enough  to  make  one  rejoice  that,  although 
war  was  never  declared,  the  gallant  Truxton  did,  pres 
ently,  in  two  well-fought  naval  battles,  inflict  crush 
ing  and  galling  defeat  upon  the  haughty  tricolour. 
Those  were  the  days  when  the  new  nation  in  America 
was  deemed  so  weak  that  anybody  might  insult  it 
with  impunity,  and  France  and  England  vied  with 
each  other  in  bullying  and  teasing  us.  Under  such 
treatment  it  was  hard  to  maintain  prudence.  Wash- 


238  ANDREW   JACKSON 

ington  seriously  risked  his  popularity  by  averting  a 
quarrel  with  England  in  1794;  Adams  sacrificed  his 
chances  for  reelection  by  refusing  to  go  to  war  with 
France  in  1 799.  The  effect  of  all  this  must  be  borne 
in  mind  if  we  would  appreciate  the  immense  and  well- 
earned  popularity  which  Jackson  acquired  when  the 
time  had  come  to  strike  back. 

In  April,  1798,  Jackson  resigned  his  seat  in  the 
Senate,  and  was  appointed  judge  in  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Tennessee.  He  retained  this  position  for  six  years, 
but  nothing  is  known  of  his  decisions,  as  the  practice 
of  recording  decisions  began  only  with  his  successor, 
Judge  Overton.  During  this  period  he  was  much 
harassed  by  business  troubles  arising  from  the  decline 
in  the  value  of  land  consequent  upon  the  financial 
crisis  of  1798.  At  length,  in  1804,  he  resigned  his 
judgeship  in  order  to  devote  his  attention  exclusively 
to  his  private  affairs.  He  paid  up  all  his  debts  and 
engaged  extensively  both  in  planting  and  in  trade. 
He  was  noted  for  fair  and  honourable  dealing,  his 
credit  was  always  excellent,  and  a  note  with  his  name 
on  it  was  considered  as  good  as  gold.  He  had  a  clear 
head  for  business,  and  was  never  led  astray  by  the 
delusions  about  paper  money  by  which  American 
communities  have  so  often  been  infested.  His  planta 
tion  was  well  managed,  and  his  slaves  were  always 
kindly  and  considerately  treated. 

But  while  genial  and  kind  in  disposition,  he  was  by 
no  means  a  person  with  whom  it  was  safe  to  take 
liberties.  In  1795  he  fought  a  duel  with  Avery,  an 
opposing  counsel,  over  some  hasty  words  that  had 
passed  in  the  court-room.  Next  year  he  quarrelled 
with  John  Sevier,  the  famous  governor  of  Tennessee, 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  239 

and  came  near  shooting  him  "  at  sight."  Sevier  had 
alluded  to  the  circumstances  of  his  marriage.  Ten 
years  afterward,  for  a  similar  offence,  though  compli 
cated  with  other  matters  in  the  course  of  a  long 
quarrel,  he  fought  a  duel  with  Charles  Dickinson,  a 
young  lawyer  of  Nashville.  The  circumstances  were 
such  as  to  show  Jackson's  wonderful  nerve  and  rare 
skill  in  grazing  danger.  Each  man  meant  to  kill  the 
other,  and  Dickinson  was  called  the  most  unerring 
marksman  in  all  that  country.  It  is  said  that  on  the 
way  to  the  place  of  meeting,  as  Dickinson  and  his 
friends  stopped  at  a  tavern  for  lunch,  he  amused  him 
self  by  severing  a  string  with  his  bullet,  and  pointing 
to  the  hanging  remnant,  said  to  the  landlord  as  he 
rode  away,  "  If  Andrew  Jackson  comes  along  this 
road,  show  him  that ! "  It  was  in  much  more  serious 
mood  that  Jackson,  as  he  made  the  journey,  discussed 
with  Overton,  his  second,  the  proper  course  to  pursue. 
It  was  decided  that,  as  Dickinson  would  surely  have 
the  advantage  in  a  quick  shot,  it  would  be  best  to  let 
him  fire  first,  and  then  take  deliberate  aim  at  him. 
When  all  had  arrived  upon  the  ground,  at  the  given 
signal  Dickinson  instantly  fired.  It  has  been  thought 
that  his  aim  may  have  been  slightly  misled  by  Jack 
son's  extreme  slenderness  and  the  loose  fit  of  his  coat. 
Instead  of  piercing  his  heart,  the  ball  broke  the  rib 
close  by  and  made  an  ugly  wound,  which,  however, 
no  one  observed.  It  was  a  moment  of  sore  astonish 
ment  for  Dickinson  when  he  saw  his  grim  adversary 
still  standing  before  him.  Jackson's  trigger  had 
stopped  at  half  cock,  but  he  skilfully  raised  it  into 
position  again,  and  at  his  fire  Dickinson  fell  mortally 
wounded.  It  was  not  until  they  had  gone  more  than 


240  ANDREW  JACKSON 

a  hundred  yards  away  from  the  spot  that  Jackson 
opened  his  coat  and  disclosed  his  wound,  whereat 
Overton  expressed  the  greatest  surprise  that,  after 
such  a  hurt,  he  should  have  been  able  to  remain  stand 
ing  and  return  his  adversary's  fire.  In  Jackson's  reply 
there  was  a  touch  of  hyperbole.  "  By  the  Eternal," 
said  he,  "  I  would  have  killed  him  if  he  had  shot  me 
through  the  brain."  The  unfortunate  Dickinson  died 
that  night,  cursing  his  fate  and  unspeakably  chagrined 
by  the  belief  that  he  had  not  hit  his  enemy.  Perhaps 
it  would  have  consoled  him  somewhat  if  he  could  have 
known  that,  after  nearly  forty  years  and  in  a  ripe  old 
age,  the  death  of  Andrew  Jackson  was  to  be  caused 
by  the  wound  received  that  morning.  Such  incidents 
are  far  from  pleasant  to  tell ;  indeed,  they  are  revolting 
in  the  extreme.  But  perhaps  nothing  could  better 
illustrate  the  unconquerable  spirit  that  carried  Jack 
son  through  every  kind  of  vicissitude. 

About  this  time  Jackson  was  visited  by  Aaron  Burr, 
who  was  then  preparing  his  mysterious  Southwestern 
expedition.  Since  1801  Jackson  had  been  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  Tennessee  militia,  and  Burr  seems  to 
have  wished,  if  possible,  to  make  use  of  his  influence 
in  raising  troops,  but  without  indicating  the  purpose 
for  which  they  were  wanted.  In  this  he  was  unsuccess 
ful.  Jackson  was  not  the  man  to  be  used  as  a  cat's 
paw,  but  he  seems  to  have  regarded  the  charge  of 
treason  afterward  brought  against  Burr  as  ill-founded. 
At  Richmond,  while  Burr's  trial  was  going  on,  Jack 
son  made  a  speech  reflecting  upon  Jefferson,  and  thus 
made  himself  obnoxious  to  Madison,  who  was  then 
Secretary  of  State.  Afterward,  in  1808,  he  declared  his 
preference  for  Monroe  over  Madison  as  candidate  for 


FRONTIERSMAN    AND   SOLDIER  241 

the  presidency.  He  was  considered  unfriendly  to  Madi 
son's  administration,  but  this  did  not  prevent  him  from 
offering  his  services,  with  those  of  twenty-five  hundred 
men,  as  soon  as  war  was  declared  against  Great  Britain 
in  1812.  Late  in  that  year,  after  the  disasters  in  the 
Northwest,  it  was  feared  that  the  British  might  make 
an  attempt  upon  New  Orleans,  and  Jackson  was  ordered 
down  to  Natchez  at  the  head  of  two  thousand  men.  He 
went  in  high  spirits,  promising  to  plant  the  American 
eagle  upon  the  ramparts  of  Mobile,  Pensacola,  and  St. 
Augustine,  if  so  directed.  On  the  6th  of  February,  as  it 
had  become  evident  that  the  British  were  not  meditat 
ing  a  southward  expedition,  the  new  Secretary  of  War 
Armstrong  sent  word  to  Jackson  to  disband  his  troops. 
This  stupid  order  reached  the  general  at  Natchez 
toward  the  end  of  March,  and  inflamed  his  wrath. 
He  took  upon  himself  the  responsibility  of  marching 
his  men  home  in  a  body,  an  act  in  which  the  govern 
ment  afterward  acquiesced,  and  reimbursed  Jackson  for 
the  expense  involved.  During  this  march  Jackson 
became  the  idol  of  his  troops,  and  his  sturdiness  won 
him  the  nickname  of  "  Old  Hickory,"  by  which  he  was 
affectionately  known  among  his  friends  and  followers 
for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

It  was  early  in  September,  1813,  shortly  after  his 
return  to  Nashville,  that  the  affray  occurred  with 
Thomas  Benton,  growing  out  of  an  unusually  silly 
duel  in  which  Jackson,  with  more  good  nature  than 
discretion,  had  acted  as  second  to  the  antagonist  of 
Benton 's  brother.  The  case  was  one  which  a  few 
calm  words  of  personal  explanation  might  easily  have 
adjusted.  But  the  facts  got  misrepresented,  and  both 
men  lost  their  tempers  before  arriving  at  correct  views 


242  ANDREW   JACKSON 

of  the  matter.  In  a  tavern  at  Nashville  Jackson 
undertook  to  horsewhip  Benton,  and  in  the  ensuing 
scuffle  the  latter  was  pitched  downstairs,  while  Jackson 
got  a  bullet  in  the  left  shoulder  which  he  carried  for 
more  than  twenty  years.  Jackson  and  Benton  had 
been  warm  friends.  After  this  affair  they  did  not 
meet  again  until  1823,  when  both  were  in  the  United 
States  Senate.  They  were  both  as  frank  and  gener 
ous  as  they  were  impulsive,  and  soon  became  fast 
friends  again.  There  is  an  amusing  side  to  the  primi 
tive  Homeric  boisterousness  of  such  scenes  among 
grown-up  men  of  high  station  in  life.  In  the  early 
part  of  this  century,  though  quite  characteristic  of  the 
Southwest,  it  was  not  confined  to  that  part  of  the 
country.  It  was  not  so  many  years  since  two  con 
gressmen,  Matthew  Lyon  of  Vermont  and  Roger 
Griswold  of  Connecticut,  had  rolled  on  the  floor  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  cuffing  and  pounding 
each  other  like  angry  schoolboys. 

The  war  with  Great  Britain  was  complicated  with 
an  Indian  war  which  could  not  in  any  case  have  been 
avoided.  The  westward  progress  of  the  white  settlers 
toward  the  Mississippi  River  was  gradually  driving 
the  red  man  from  his  hunting-grounds ;  and  the  cele 
brated  Tecumseh  had  formed  a  scheme,  quite  similar 
to  that  of  Pontiac  fifty  years  earlier,  of  uniting  all  the 
tribes  between  Florida  and  the  Great  Lakes  in  a  grand 
attempt  to  drive  back  the  white  men.  This  scheme 
was  partially  frustrated  in  the  autumn  of  1811,  while 
Tecumseh  was  preaching  his  crusade  among  the  Chero- 
kees,  Creeks,  and  Seminoles.  During  his  absence  his 
brother,  known  as  the  Prophet,  attacked  General  Har 
rison  at  Tippecanoe  and  was  overwhelmingly  defeated. 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  243 

The  war  with  Great  Britain  renewed  Tecumseh's  op 
portunity,  and  his  services  to  the  enemy  were  extremely 
valuable  until  his  death  in  the  battle  of  the  Thames. 
Tecumseh's  principal  ally  in  the  South  was  a  half-breed 
Creek  chieftain  named  Weathersford.  On  the  shore 
of  Lake  Tensaw,  in  the  southern  part  of  what  is  now 
Alabama,  was  a  stockaded  fortress  known  as  Fort 
Mimms ;  there  many  of  the  settlers  had  taken  refuge. 
On  the  30th  of  August,  1813,  this  stronghold  was 
surprised  by  Weathersford  at  the  head  of  one  thousand 
Creek  warriors,  and  more  than  four  hundred  men, 
women,  and  children  were  most  atrociously  massacred. 
The  news  of  this  dreadful  affair  aroused  the  people  of 
the  Southwest  to  vengeance;  men  and  money  were 
raised  by  the  state  of  Tennessee ;  and,  before  he  had 
fully  recovered  from  the  wound  received  in  the  Benton 
affray,  Jackson  took  the  field  at  the  head  of  twenty-five 
hundred  men.  Now  for  the  first  time  he  had  a  chance 
to  show  his  wonderful  military  capacity,  his  sleepless 
vigilance,  untiring  patience,  and  unrivalled  talent  as  a 
leader  of  men.  The  difficulties  encountered  were  for 
midable  in  the  extreme.  In  that  frontier  wilderness  the 
business  of  the  commissariat  was  naturally  ill  managed, 
and  the  men,  who  under  the  most  favourable  circum 
stances  had  little  idea  of  military  subordination,  were 
part  of  the  time  mutinous  from  hunger.  More  than 
once  Jackson  was  obliged  to  use  one-half  of  his  army 
to  keep  the  other  half  from  disbanding.  In  view  of 
these  difficulties  the  celerity  of  his  movements  and  the 
force  with  which  he  struck  the  enemy  were  truly  mar 
vellous.  The  Indians  were  badly  defeated  at  Tallasa- 
hatchee  and  Talladega.  At  length,  on  the  2;th  of 
March,  1814,  having  been  reenforced  by  a  regiment 


244  ANDREW  JACKSON 

of  United  States  infantry,  Jackson  struck  the  decisive 
blow  at  Tohopeka,  otherwise  known  as  the  Horseshoe 
Bend  of  the  Tallapoosa  River.  In  this  bloody  battle 
no  quarter  was  given,  and  the  strength  of  the  Creek 
nation  was  finally  broken.  Jackson  pursued  the  rem 
nant  to  their  place  of  refuge,  called  the  Holy  Ground, 
upon  which  the  medicine  men  had  declared  that  no 
white  man  could  set  foot  and  live.  Such  of  the  Creek 
chieftains  as  had  not  fled  to  Florida  now  surrendered. 
The  American  soldiers  were  ready  to  kill  Weathers- 
ford  in  revenge  for  Fort  Mimms,  but  the  magnanimous 
Jackson  spared  his  life  and  treated  him  so  well  that 
henceforth  he  and  his  people  remained  on  good  terms 
with  the  white  men.  Among  the  officers  who  served 
under  Jackson  in  this  remarkable  campaign  were  the 
two  picturesque  men  who  in  later  years  played  such 
an  important  part  in  the  history  of  the  Southwest, — 
Samuel  Houston  and  David  Crockett.  The  Creek 
War  was  one  of  critical  importance.  It  was  the  last 
occasion  on  which  the  red  men  could  put  forth  suffi 
cient  power  to  embarrass  the  United  States  govern 
ment.  More  than  any  other  single  battle,  that  of 
Tohopeka  marks  the  downfall  of  Indian  power  on 
this  continent.  Its  immediate  effects  upon  the  war 
with  Great  Britain  were  very  great.  By  destroying 
the  only  hostile  power  within  the  Southwestern  terri 
tory,  it  made  it  possible  to  concentrate  the  military 
force  of  the  border  states  upon  any  point,  however 
remote,  that  might  be  threatened  by  the  British.  More 
specifically,  it  made  possible  the  great  victory  at  New 
Orleans.  Throughout  the  whole  of  this  campaign,  in 
which  Jackson  showed  such  indomitable  energy,  he 
was  suffering  from  illness  such  as  would  have  kept 


FRONTIERSMAN    AND   SOLDIER  245 

any  ordinary  man  groaning  in  bed,  besides  that  for 
most  of  the  time  his  left  arm  had  to  be  supported  in 
a  sling.  His  pluck  was  equalled  by  his  thoroughness. 
Many  generals  after  victory  are  inclined  to  relax  their 
efforts ;  not  so  Jackson,  who  followed  up  every  success 
with  furious  persistence,  and  whose  admirable  maxim 
was  that  in  war  "  until  all  is  done  nothing  is  done." 

On  the  3ist  of  May,  1814,  Jackson  was  made  major- 
general  in  the  regular  army,  and  was  appointed  to 
command  the  Department  of  the  South.  It  was  then  a 
matter  of  dispute  whether  Mobile  belonged  to  Spain 
or  to  the  United  States.  In  August  Jackson  occupied 
the  town  and  made  his  headquarters  there.  With  the 
consent  of  Spain  the  British  were  using  Florida  as  a 
base  of  operations,  and  had  established  themselves  at 
Pensacola.  Jackson  wrote  to  Washington  for  per 
mission  to  attack  them  there,  but  the  government  was 
loath  to  sanction  an  invasion  of  Spanish  territory 
until  the  complicity  of  Spain  with  our  enemy  should 
be  proved  beyond  cavil.  The  letter  from  Secretary 
Armstrong  to  this  effect  did  not  reach  Jackson.  The 
capture  of  Washington  by  the  British  prevented  his 
receiving  orders  and  left  him  to  act  upon  his  own  re 
sponsibility,  a  kind  of  situation  from  which  he  was  never 
known  to  flinch.  On  September  14  the  British  advanced 
against  Mobile,  but  in  their  attack  upon  the  outwork, 
Fort  Bowyer,  they  met  with  a  disastrous  repulse.  They 
retreated  to  Pensacola,  whither  Jackson  followed  them 
with  three  thousand  men.  On  the  7th  of  November  he 
stormed  that  town.  His  next  move  would  have  been 
against  Fort  Barrancas,  six  miles  distant,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  harbour. 

By  capturing  this  post  he  would  have  entrapped  the 


246  ANDREW   JACKSON 

British  fleet  and  might  have  compelled  it  to  surrender ; 
but  the  enemy  forestalled  him  by  blowing  up  the  fort 
and  beating  a  precipitate  retreat.  For  thus  driving 
the  British  from  Florida,  a  most  necessary  and  useful 
act,  Jackson  was  stupidly  and  maliciously  blamed  by 
the  Federalist  newspapers.  After  clearing  the  enemy 
away  frorn  this  quarter,  he  found  himself  free  to  devote 
all  his  energies  to  the  task  of  defending  New  Orleans; 
and  there,  after  an  arduous  journey,  he  arrived  on  the 
2d  of  December.  The  British  expedition  directed 
against  that  city  was  much  more  formidable  than  any 
other  that  we  had  to  encounter  during  that  war ;  and,, 
moreover,  its  purpose  was  much  more  deadly.  In  the 
North  the  British  warfare  had  been  directed  chiefly 
toward  defending  Canada  and  gaining  such  a  foothold 
upon  our  frontier  as  might  be  useful  in  making  terms 
at  the  end  of  the  war.  The  burning  of  Washington 
was  an  exasperating  insult,  but  its  military  importance 
was  very  slight.  But  the  expedition  against  New 
Orleans  was  intended  to  make  a  permanent  conquest 
of  the  lower  Mississippi,  and  to  secure  for  Great  Britain 
in  perpetuity  the  western  bank  of  the  river.  Napoleon 
had  sold  us  the  vast  Louisiana  territory  in  order  to 
keep  Great  Britain  from  seizing  it.  As  part  of  his 
empire  it  was  a  vulnerable  spot  which  the  mistress  of 
the  seas  could  strike  with  impunity  so  far  as  he  was 
concerned.  He  preferred  to  put  it  into  the  hands  of 
a  power  which  was  at  that  time  hostile  toward  Great 
Britain.  But  the  latter  power  felt  quite  competent  to 
take  it  away  from  Napoleon's  ally,  and  as  the  emperor 
had  just  been  dethroned  and  sent  to  Elba,  the  whole 
strength  of  England,  if  needed,  could  be  put  forth  against 
the  United  States.  The  war  had  now  lasted  more  than 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  247 

two  years,  and  in  spite  of  our  glorious  naval  victories, 
the  American  arms  upon  land  had  made  but  little 
headway  as  against  the  British.  For  constructive 
statesmanship  Mr.  Madison's  abilities  were  of  the  high 
est  order,  but  as  President  he  had  shown  himself  un 
equal  to  the  task  of  conducting  a  war.  At  the  outset 
the  Americans  had  entertained  hopes  of  conquering 
Canada,  but  we  had  begun  with  serious  defeats  and 
losses,  and  at  length,  after  several  brilliant  victories,  had 
done  little  more  than  to  ward  off  invasion  at  the  two 
gateways  of  Niagara  and  Lake  Champlain.  In  New 
England  the  British  had  seized  and  held  the  wilder 
ness  east  of  the  Penobscot,  creating  quite  a  panic 
throughout  that  part  of  the  country.  The  leaders  of 
the  old  Federalist  party  in  New  England  were  factious 
and  disloyal,  and  in  this  very  month  of  December,  1814, 
there  was  assembled  at  Hartford  a  convention  which* 
adopted  measures -looking  toward  a  possible  dissolution 
of  the  Union.  The  national  finances  were  in  a  state 
of  collapse,  and  nearly  all  the  banks  in  the  Middle  and 
Southern  states  had  suspended  specie  payments.  The 
British  government  assumed  a  tone  of  more  than  ordi 
nary  arrogance.  It  was  going  to  demand  a  high  price 
for  peace:  the  eastern  half  of  Maine,  at  any  rate,  and 
the  Michigan  territory,  and  perhaps  yet  more  of  the 
Northwest ;  and  the  Americans  must  promise  not  to 
keep  any  more  armed  vessels  upon  the  lakes,  which 
must  have  sounded  queer  to  Perry  and  Macdonough. 
Then,  with  the  western  bank  of  the  Mississippi  secured, 
Great  Britain  could  hem  in  the  United  States,  as 
France  had  once  hemmed  in  the  colonies  ;  Canada  and 
Louisiana  could  be  made  to  join  hands  again.  In 
order  to  effect  all  this,  it  seemed  necessary  to  inflict 


248  ANDREW  JACKSON 

upon  the  Americans  one  crushing  and  humiliating  de 
feat,  —  such  a  defeat,  for  instance,  as  the  French  had 
lately  suffered  at  Vitoria.  That  this  could  be  done 
few  Englishmen  doubted,  and  so  confident  was  the 
expectation  of  victory  that  governors  and  comman 
dants  for  the  towns  along  the  Mississippi  River  were 
actually  appointed  and  sent  out  in  the  fleet !  The 
situation,  so  far  as  British  intentions  went,  was  thus 
extremely  threatening.  Even  had  nothing  of  all  this 
been  accomplished  beyond  the  conquest  of  New 
Orleans,  when  we  remember  what  annoyance  so  weak 
a  nation  as  Spain  had  been  able  to  inflict  upon  us  dur 
ing  the  twenty  years  preceding  1803,  we  can  imagine 
how  insufferable  it  would  have  been  had  the  mouth  of 
the  Mississippi  passed  under  the  control  of  the  greatest 
naval  power  in  the  world. 

When  Jackson  rode  into  New  Orleans  on  the  2d  of 
December,  1814,  he  was  so  worn  out  by  disease  and  so 
jaded  by  his  long  journey  in  the  saddle  that  the  fittest 
place  for  him  was  the  hospital,  and  almost  any  other 
man  would  have  gone  there.  But  in  the  hawklike 
glare  of  his  eye  there  shone  forth  a  spirit  as  indomi 
table  as  ever  dwelt  in  human  frame.  His  activity  dur 
ing  the  following  weeks  was  well-nigh  incredible. 
There  was  one  time  when  he  is  said  to  have  gone  five 
days  and  four  nights  without  sleep.  Before  his  arrival 
there  was  dire  confusion  and  consternation,  but  his 
energy  soon  restored  order,  and  there  was  something 
in  his  manner  that  inspired  confidence.  He  never 
for  a  moment  admitted  the  possibility  of  defeat,  he 
never  doubted,  fumbled,  or  hesitated,  but  always  saw 
at  a  glance  the  end  to  be  reached,  and  went  straight 
toward  it  without  losing  a  moment.  At  first  it  rather 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  249 

took  people's  breath  away  when  upon  his  own  respon 
sibility  he  put  the  city  under  martial  law.  But  an 
autocrat  upon  whom  so  much  reliance  was  placed 
found  ready  obedience,  and  the  strictest  discipline  was 
maintained.  Women  are  apt  to  be  quick  in  recogniz 
ing  the  true  hero,  and  from  the  outset  all  the  women 
of  New  Orleans  had  faith  in  Jackson.  His  stately 
demeanour  and  graceful  politeness  were  much  admired. 
On  the  day  of  his  arrival  Edward  Livingston,  who  was 
now  to  be  his  aide-de-camp,  invited  him  home  to  dinner. 
The  beautiful  Mrs.  Livingston  was  then  the  leader  of 
fashionable  society  in  New  Orleans.  That  day  she 
had  a  dozen  young  ladies  to  dinner,  and  just  as  they 
were  about  to  sit  down  there  came  the  startling  news 
that  General  Jackson  was  on  his  way  to  join  the  party. 
There  was  anxious  curiosity  as  to  how  the  uncouth 
queller  of  Indians  would  look  and  behave.  When  he 
entered  the  room,  tall  and  stately  in  his  uniform  of  blue 
cloth  and  yellow  buckskin,  all  were  amazed  at  his 
courtly  manners,  and  it  was  not  long  before  all  were 
charmed  with  his  pleasant  and  kindly  talk.  After 
dinner  he  had  no  sooner  left  the  house  than  the  young 
ladies  in  chorus  exclaimed  to  Mrs.  Livingston :  "  Is 
this  your  backwoodsman  ?  Why,  madam,  he  is  a 
prince  !  " 1  Many  years  afterward  Josiah  Quincy,  mem 
ber  of  a  committee  for  receiving  President  Jackson  on 
his  visit  to  Boston,  was  in  like  manner  astonished  at 
his  urbanity  and  grace.  He  had  the  dignity  that  goes 
with  entire  simplicity  of  nature,  and  the  ease  that 
comes  from  unconsciousness  of  self. 

One  of  Jackson's  latest  biographers  observes  that  in 
this  campaign  everything  fell  out  favourably  for  him, 

1  Parton,  II.  31. 


250  ANDREW  JACKSON 

"  as  if  by  magic." ]  But  if  there  was  any  magic  in  the 
case,  it  lay  in  the  bold  initiative  by  which  he  got  the 
game  into  his  own  hands  and  kept  it  there.  As  soon 
as  he  heard  of  the  landing  of  the  British,  he  went  forth 
to  attack  them,  rightly  believing  that  their  ignorance 
of  the  country  might  be  set  off  against  their  superb 
discipline.  He  made  a  spirited  night  attack  upon 
their  camp,  while  from  the  river  the  heavy  guns  of  the 
schooner  Carolina  raked  them  with  distressing  charges 
of  grape.  The  effect  was  to  check  the  enemy's  prog 
ress  and  give  Jackson  time  to  complete  his  intrench- 
ments  in  a  very  strong  position  which  he  had  chosen, 
near  the  Bienvenue  and  Chalmette  plantations,  on  the 
east  side  of  the  river.  On  the  farther  side  he  placed 
the  militia  of  Kentucky  and  Louisiana,  under  General 
Morgan.  The  British  numbered  twelve  thousand  men 
under  command  of  Wellington's  brother-in-law,  the 
gallant  Sir  Edward  Pakenham.  To  oppose  these  vet 
erans  of  the  Spanish  peninsula,  Jackson  had  six  thou 
sand  of  that  sturdy  race  whose  fathers  had  vanquished 
Ferguson  at  King's  Mountain,  and  whose  children  so 
nearly  vanquished  Grant  at  Shiloh.  On  the  8th  of 
January  Pakenham  was  unwise  enough  to  try  to  over 
whelm  his  adversary  by  a  direct  assault  all  along  the 
line.  It  was  repeating  Bunker  Hill  and  anticipating 
Cold  Harbor.  On  the  west  bank,  indeed,  the  British 
weight  of  numbers  prevailed,  pushed  the  militia  out  of 
the  way,  and  seemed  to  open  a  chance  for  turning 
Jackson's  position.  But  all  this  was  rendered  futile 
by  the  stupendous  catastrophe  on  the  eastern  bank. 
"  Don't  waste  any  shots,  boys,"  said  Jackson,  as  the 
long  lines  of  redcoats  were  seen  approaching,  "make 

1  Sumner,  39. 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  251 

every  shot  tell ;  we  must  finish  this  business  to-day, 
you  know."  We  may  well  believe  that  these  faultless 
marksmen,  who  thought  nothing  of  bringing  down  a 
squirrel  from  the  top  of  the  tallest  tree,  wasted  very  few 
shots  indeed.  In  just  twenty-five  minutes  the  British 
were  in  full  retreat,  leaving  twenty-six  hundred  of 
their  number  killed  and  wounded.  "  The  field,"  said  an 
officer,  "  was  so  thickly  strewn  with  the  dead,  that  from 
the  American  ditch  you  could  have  walked  forward 
for  a  quarter  of  a  mile  on  the  bodies."  "  In  some  places 
whole  platoons  lay  together,  as  if  killed  by  the  same 
discharge." l  Without  a  sound  of  exultation  the 
Americans  looked  on  the  dreadful  scene  in  melan 
choly  silence,  and  presently  detachments  of  them  were 
busy  in  assuaging  the  thirst  and  bathing  the  wounds 
of  those  in  whom  life  was  left.  Among  the  slain  was 
Pakenham  himself.  The  American  loss  was  only 
eight  killed  and  thirteen  wounded,  because  the  enemy 
were  mown  down  too  quickly  to  return  an  effective 
fire.  Never,  perhaps,  in  the  history  of  the  world,  has 
a  battle  been  fought  between  armies  of  civilized  men 
with  so  great  a  disparity  of  loss.  It  was  also  the  most 
complete  and  overwhelming  defeat  that  any  English 
army  has  ever  experienced.  It  outdid  even  Bannock- 
burn.  News  travelled  so  slowly  then  that  this  great 
victory,  like  the  three  last  naval  victories  of  the  war, 
occurred  after  peace  had  been  made  by  the  commis 
sioners  at  Ghent.  Nevertheless,  no  American  can 
regret  that  the  battle  was  fought.  Not  only  the  inso 
lence  and  rapacity  of  Great  Britain  had  richly  deserved 
such  castigation,  but  if  she  had  once  gained  a  foothold 
in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  it  might  have  taken  an  armed 

1Parton,  II.  209. 


252  ANDREW  JACKSON 

force  to  dislodge  her,  in  spite  of  the  treaty ;  for  in  the 
matter  of  the  western  frontier  posts  after  1783  she  had 
by  no  means  acted  in  good  faith.  Jackson's  victory  de 
cided  that  henceforth  the  Mississippi  Valley  belonged 
indisputably  to  the  people  of  the  United  States.  It 
was  the  recollection  of  that  victory,  along  with  the 
exploits  of  Hull  and  Decatur,  Perry  and  Macdonough, 
which  caused  the  Holy  Alliance  to  look  upon  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  as  something  more  than  an  idle 
threat.  All  over  the  United  States  the  immediate 
effect  of  the  news  was  electric ;  and  it  was  enhanced 
by  the  news  of  peace  which  arrived  a  few  days  later. 
By  this  "  almost  incredible  victory,"  as  the  National 
Intelligencer  called  it,  the  credit  of  the  American  arms, 
upon  land,  was  fully  restored.  Not  only  did  the  ad 
ministration  glory  in  it,  as  was  natural,  but  the  opposi 
tion  lauded  it  for  a  different  reason,  as  an  example  of 
what  American  military  heroism  could  do  in  spite  of 
inadequate  support  from  government.  Thus  praised 
by  all  parties,  Jackson,  who  before  the  Creek  War  had 
been  little  known  outside  of  Tennessee,  became  at 
once  the  foremost  man  in  the  United  States.  People 
in  the  North,  while  throwing  up  their  hats  for  him, 
were  sometimes  heard  to  ask:  "Who  is  this  General 
Jackson?  To  what  state  does  he  belong?"  Hence 
forth,  until  the  Civil  War,  he  occupied  the  most  promi 
nent  place  in  the  popular  mind. 

After  his  victory  Jackson  remained  three  months 
in  New  Orleans,  in  some  conflict  with  the  civil  au 
thorities  of  the  town,  which  he  found  it  necessary  to 
hold  under  martial  law.  In  April  he  returned  to 
Nashville,  still  retaining  his  military  command  of  the 
Southwest.  He  soon  became  involved  in  a  quarrel 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  253 

with  Mr.  Crawford,  the  Secretary  of  War,  who  had 
undertaken  to  modify  some  provisions  in  his  treaty 
with  the  Creeks.  Jackson  was  also  justly  incensed  by 
the  occasional  issue  of  orders  from  the  War  Department 
directly  to  his  subordinate  officers ;  such  orders  some 
times  stupidly  thwarted  his  plans.  The  usual  course 
for  a  commanding  general  thus  annoyed  would  be  to 
make  a  private  representation  to  the  government.  But 
here,  as  ordinarily,  while  quite  right  in  his  position, 
Jackson  was  violent  and  overbearing  in  his  methods. 
He  published,  April  22,  1817,  an  order  forbidding 
his  subordinate  officers  to  pay  heed  to  any  order  from 
the  War  Department  unless  issued  through  him.  Mr. 
Calhoun,  who  in  October  succeeded  Crawford  as  Sec 
retary  of  War,  gracefully  yielded  the  point,  but  the 
public  had  meanwhile  been  somewhat  scandalized  by 
the  collision  of  authorities.  In  private  conversation 
General  Scott  had  alluded  to  Jackson's  conduct  as 
savouring  of  mutiny.  This  led  to  an  angry  corre 
spondence  between  the  two  generals,  ending  in  a  chal 
lenge  from  Jackson,  which  Scott  declined  on  the 
ground  that  duelling  is  a  wicked  and  unchristian 
custom. 

Affairs  in  Florida  now  demanded  attention.  That 
country  had  become  a  nest  of  outlaws,  and  chaos 
reigned  supreme  there.  Many  of  the  defeated  Creeks 
had  found  a  refuge  in  Florida ;  and  runaway  negroes 
from  the  plantations  of  Georgia  and  South  Carolina 
were  continually  escaping  thither.  During  the  late 
war  British  officers  and  adventurers,  acting  on  their 
own  responsibility  upon  this  neutral  soil,  committed 
many  acts  which  their  government  would  never  have 
sanctioned.  They  stirred  up  Indians  and  negroes  to 


254  ANDREW   JACKSON 

commit  atrocities  on  the  United  States  frontier.  The 
Spanish  government  was  at  that  time  engaged  in  war 
fare  with  its  revolted  colonies  in  South  America,  and 
the  coasts  of  Florida  became  a  haunt  for  contraband 
traders,  privateers,  and  filibusters.  One  adventurer 
would  announce  his  intention  to  make  Florida  a  free 
republic ;  another  would  go  about  committing  robbery 
on  his  own  account ;  a  third  would  set  up  an  agency 
for  kidnapping  negroes  on  speculation.  The  disorder 
was  hideous.  On  the  Apalachicola  River  the  British 
had  built  a  fort,  and  amply  stocked  it  with  arms  and 
ammunition,  to  serve  as  a  base  of  operations  against 
the  United  States.  On  the  departure  of  the  British, 
the  fort  was  seized  and  held  by  negroes.  This 
alarmed  the  people  of  Georgia,  and  in  July,  1816, 
United  States  troops,  with  permission  from  the  Span 
ish  authorities,  marched  in  and  bombarded  the  negro 
fort.  A  hot  shot  found  its  way  into  the  magazine, 
three  hundred  negroes  were  blown  into  fragments, 
and  the  fort  was  demolished.  In  this  case  the  Span 
iards  were  ready  to  leave  to  United  States  troops  a 
disagreeable  work  for  which  their  own  force  was 
incompetent.  Every  day  made  it  plainer  that  Spain 
was  quite  unable  to  preserve  order  in  Florida,  and  for 
this  reason  the  United  States  entered  upon  negotia 
tions  for  the  purchase  of  that  country.  Meanwhile 
the  turmoil  increased.  White  men  were  murdered  by 
Indians,  and  United  States  troops  under  Colonel 
Twiggs  captured  and  burned  a  considerable  Seminole 
village  known  as  Fowltown.  The  Indians  retaliated 
by  a  wholesale  massacre  of  fifty  people  who  were 
ascending  the  Apalachicola  River  in  boats;  some  of 
the  victims  were  tortured  with  firebrands.  Jackson 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  255 

was  now  ordered  to  the  frontier.  He  wrote  at  once 
to  President  Monroe,  "  Let  it  be  signified  to  me 
through  any  channel  (say  Mr.  John  Rhea)  that  the 
possession  of  the  Floridas  would  be  desirable  to  the 
United  States,  and  in  sixty  days  it  will  be  accom 
plished."  Mr.  Rhea  was  a  representative  from  Ten 
nessee,  a  confidential  friend  of  both  Jackson  and 
Monroe.  The  President  was  ill  when  Jackson's  letter 
reached  him,  and  does  not  seem  to  have  given  it  due 
consideration.  On  referring  to  it  a  year  later  he  could 
not  remember  that  he  had  ever  seen  it  before.  Rhea, 
however,  seems  to  have  written  a  letter  to  Jackson, 
telling  him  that  the  President  approved  of  his  sugges 
tion.  As  to  this  point  the  united  testimony  of  Jack 
son,  Rhea,  and  Judge  Overton  seems  conclusive. 
Afterward  Mr.  Monroe,  through  Rhea,  seems  to  have 
requested  Jackson  to  burn  this  letter,  and  an  entry  on 
the  general's  letter-book  shows  that  it  was  accordingly 
burnt,  April  12,  1819.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that, 
whatever  the  President's  intention  may  have  been,  or 
how  far  it  may  have  been  correctly  interpreted  by 
Rhea,  the  general  honestly  considered  himself  author 
ized  to  take  possession  of  Florida  on  the  ground  that 
the  Spanish  government  had  shown  itself  incompetent 
to  prevent  the  denizens  of  that  country  from  engaging 
in  hostilities  against  the  United  States.  Jackson 
acted  upon  this  belief  with  his  accustomed  prompt 
ness.  He  raised  troops  in  Tennessee  and  neighbour 
ing  states,  invaded  Florida  in  March,  1818,  captured 
St.  Mark's,  and  pushed  on  to  the  Seminole  headquar 
ters  on  the  Suwanee  River.  In  less  than  three 
months  from  this  time  he  had  overthrown  the  Indians 
and  brought  order  out  of  chaos.  His  measures  were 


256  ANDREW   JACKSON 

praised  by  his  friends  as  vigorous,  while  his  enemies 
stigmatized  them  as  high-handed.  In  one  instance 
his  conduct  was  certainly  open  to  question.  At  St. 
Mark's  his  troops  captured  an  aged  Scotch  trader  and 
friend  of  the  Indians,  named  Alexander  Arbuthnot ; 
near  Suwanee,  some  time  afterward,  they  seized  Rob 
ert  Ambrister,  a  young  English  lieutenant  of  marines, 
nephew  of  the  governor  of  New  Providence.  Jackson 
believed  that  these  men  had  incited  the  Indians  to 
make  war  upon  the  United  States  and  were  now  en 
gaged  in  aiding  and  abetting  them  in  their  hostilities. 
They  were  tried  by  a  court-martial  at  St.  Mark's.  On 
evidence  which  surely  does  not  to-day  seem  fully  con 
clusive,  Arbuthnot  was  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to 
be  hanged.  Appearances  were  more  strongly  against 
Ambrister.  He  did  not  make  it  clear  what  his  busi 
ness  was  in  Florida,  and  threw  himself  upon  the  mercy 
of  the  court,  which  at  first  condemned  him  to  be  shot, 
but  on  further  consideration  commuted  the  sentence  to 
fifty  lashes  and  a  year's  imprisonment.  Jackson  arbi 
trarily  revived  the  first  sentence,  and  Ambrister  was 
accordingly  shot.  A  few  minutes  afterward  Arbuth 
not  was  hanged  from  the  yard-arm  of  his  own  ship, 
declaring  with  his  last  breath  that  his  country  would 
avenge  him.  In  this  affair  Jackson  unquestionably 
acted  from  a  stern  sense  of  duty ;  as  he  himself  said, 
"  My  God  would  not  have  smiled  on  me  had  I  pun 
ished  only  the  poor,  ignorant  savages,  and  spared  the 
white  men  who  set  them  on."  Here,  as  on  some  other 
occasions,  however,  when  under  the  influence  of  strong 
feeling,  it  may  be  doubted  if  he  was  to  the  full  extent 
capable  of  estimating  evidence.  It  is,  however,  very 
probable  that  the  men  were  guilty. 


FRONTIERSMAN    AND   SOLDIER  257 

On  his  way  home,  hearing  that  some  Indians  had 
sought  refuge  in  Pensacola,  Jackson  captured  the 
town,  turned  out  the  Spanish  governor,  and  left  a 
garrison  of  his  own  there.  He  had  now  virtually 
conquered  Florida,  but  he  had  moved  rather  too  fast 
for  the  government  at  Washington.  He  had  gone 
further,  perhaps,  than  was  permissible  in  trespassing 
upon  neutral  territory ;  and  his  summary  execution  of 
two  British  subjects  aroused  furious  excitement  in 
England.  For  a  moment  we  seemed  on  the  verge  of 
war  with  Great  Britain  and  Spain  at  once.  Whatever 
authority  President  Monroe  may  have  intended, 
through  the  Rhea  letter,  to  confer  upon  Jackson,  he 
certainly  felt  that  the  general  had  gone  too  far.  With 
one  exception  all  his  cabinet  agreed  with  him  that  it 
would  be  best  to  disavow  Jackson's  acts  and  make 
reparation  for  them.  But  John  Quincy  Adams,  Secre 
tary  of  State,  was  in  point  of  boldness  not  unlike  Jack 
son.  He  felt  equal  to  the  task  of  dealing  with  the 
two  foreign  powers,  and  upon  his  advice  the  adminis 
tration  decided  to  assume  the  responsibility  for  what 
Jackson  had  done.  Pensacola  and  St.  Mark's  were 
restored  to  Spain,  and  an  order  of  Jackson's  for  the 
seizing  of  St.  Augustine  was  countermanded  by  the 
President.  But  Adams  represented  to  Spain  that 
the  American  general,  in  his  invasion  of  Florida,  was 
virtually  assisting  the  Spanish  government  in  main 
taining  order  there ;  and  to  Great  Britain  he  justified 
the  execution  of  Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister  on  the 
ground  that  their  conduct  had  been  such  that  they 
had  forfeited  their  allegiance  and  become  virtual  out 
laws.  Spain  and  Great  Britain  accepted  the  explana 
tions  ;  had  either  nation  felt  in  the  mood  for  war  with 


258  ANDREW   JACKSON 

the  United  States,  it  might  have  been  otherwise.  As 
soon  as  the  administration  had  adopted  Jackson's 
measures,  they  were  for  that  reason  attacked  in  Con 
gress  by  Clay,  whose  opposition  was  at  this  time 
factious,  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  the  bitter  and 
lifelong  feud  between  Jackson  and  Clay.  In  1819  the 
purchase  of  Florida  from  Spain  was  effected,  and  in 
1821  Jackson  was  appointed  governor  of  that  territory. 
The  victorious  general  was  now  in  his  fifty-fifth 
year.  Until  the  age  of  forty-five  he  had  been  little 
known  outside  of  Tennessee.  It  was  then  that  the 
Creek  War  gave  him  his  opportunity,  and  revealed 
the  fact  that  there  was  a  great  general  among  us. 
Since  the  battle  of  New  Orleans  he  had  come  to  be 
as  much  a  hero  in  America  as  Wellington  in  Eng 
land.  The  Iron  Duke  was  never  once  defeated  in 
battle,  but  if  he  had  ever  come  to  blows  with  Old 
Hickory,  I  do  not  feel  absolutely  sure  that  the  record 
might  not  have  been  broken.  Jackson's  boldness  and 
tenacity  were  combined  with  a  fertility  in  resources 
that  made  him,  like  Boots  in  the  fairy  tales,  every 
where  invincible.  Alike  in  war  and  in  politics  we 
already  begin  to  see  him  always  carrying  the  day. 
One  can  see  that  the  election  of  such  a  man  to  the 
presidency  would  be  likely  to  mark  an  era  in  Ameri 
can  history.  One  sees  in  Jackson  a  representative 
man.  His  virtues  and  his  faults  were  largely  those  of 
the  frontier  society  that  in  those  days  lived  west  of  the 
Alleghanies.  His  election  to  the  presidency  was  the 
first  great  political  triumph  of  that  Western  country 
which  Gouverneur  Morris  wished  to  see  always  kept 
in  leading-strings.  The  significance  of  this  triumph  I 
shall  try  to  point  out  in  my  next  paper. 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  259 


NOTE.   AN  UNPUBLISHED  LETTER  OF  ANDREW  JACKSON. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  the  late  Colonel  Thomas  Tasker  Gantt 
of  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  Dr.  Fiske's  attention  was  directed  to  an  un 
published  letter  of  Jackson's,  written  by  the  general  in  1818  to  his 
friend,  the  Hon.  G.  W.  Campbell,  minister  to  Russia,  concerning 
affairs  in  Florida.  Dr.  Fiske  made  an  exact  copy,  which  is  given 
below,  an  interesting  example,  not  only  of  the  writer's  virility  of 
expression,  but  of  his  well-known  peculiarities  of  spelling.  Of 
these  peculiarities  General  Jackson  was  himself  well  aware.  That 
he  was  also  drolly  indifferent  to  all  conventional  rules  of  orthog 
raphy  appears  from  an  extract  of  correspondence  between  Colonel 
Gantt  and  Mrs.  Elizabeth  B.  Lee,  daughter  of  the  distinguished 
Virginian,  Francis  P.  Blair,  and  sister  to  Montgomery  Blair  of 
Lincoln's  cabinet.  From  the  lifelong  intimacy  of  the  Blairs  and 
the  Jacksons,  Mrs.  Lee  was  often,  as  a  girl,  a  guest  at  "  The 
Hermitage "  and  at  the  White  House.  "  Once,"  she  writes, 
"  when  copying  a  letter  for  him  I  protested  against  his  spelling 
which  three  different  ways  on  one  page  and  wanted  him  to  alter 
it,  but  he  would  not,  and  said  laughingly  that  he  could  make  him 
self  understood,  and  that  as  I  was  a  copyist,  I  had  better  spell  it 
as  I  found  it ;  then  he  added,  more  seriousjy,  that  at  the  age  when 
most  young  people  learn  to  spell  he  was  working  for  his  living  and 
helping  the  best  of  mothers." 

Chekesaw  Nation  Treaty  Ground, 

Octr  5th  1818. 
Dr  Sir 

I  know  you  will  be  astonished  at  receiving  an  answer  to  your 
very  friendly  letter  of  the  22d  July  last  at  this  distant  day  and  from 
this  place.  Your  letter  came  to  hand  by  due  course  of  mail,  but 
found  me  sick  in  bed  —  that  I  could  not  comply  with  your  request 
or  my  own  wishes  by  giving  it  a  speedy  answer.  It  was  some 
time  before  I  recovered  so  as  to  use  a  pen,  and  when  I  did,  I 
found  myself  surrounded  by  letters  and  communications  relative 
to  my  official  duties  that  occupied  my  whole  time  that  I  was  able 
to  attend  to  business  untill  the  arrival  of  Governor  Shelby  of 
Kentucky  with  whom  I  was  joined  in  commission  to  hold  a  treaty 
with  this  nation  for  a  surrender  of  their  right  to  all  lands  within 


260  ANDREW  JACKSON 

the  states  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky.  We  arrived  here  on  the 
29th  ult.  and  found  everything  wrong :  an  agent  unacquainted 
with  Indians,  the  geography  of  the  country,  or  even  what  was  the 
wishes  of  the  government,  and  not  half  the  nation  notified  of  the 
time  or  place  of  meeting.  Runners  have  gone  to  all  parts  of 
the  nation  to  collect  them :  we  are  waiting  their  arrival  and  I  am 
thereby  afforded  a  leisure  moment  to  answer  your  friendly  letter. 

It  affords  me  much  pleasure  to  see  the  polite  attention  of  the 
eastern  people  towards  you.  This  shows  a  spirit  of  harmony 
towards  the  southern  and  western  people  that  I  hope  will  grow 
into  permanent  harmony  between  the  two  interests,  and  that  vio 
lence  of  party  spirit  and  bickering  will  cease  to  exist  in  our  happy 
country. 

On  the  subject  of  my  taking  Pensacola  I  regret  that  the  Govern 
ment  had  not  furnished  you  with  a  copy  of  my  report  from  Fts 
Gadsden  and  Montgomery.  This  would  have  given  you  a  full 
view  of  the  whole  ground.  You  are  advised  of  the  situation  of 
our  southern  frontier  when  I  was  ordered  to  take  the  field  and  put 
a  speedy  end  to  the  conflict  with  the  Seminoles,  &c.,  &c.  Our 
frontier  when  I  reached  it  was  reeking  with  the  blood  of  our 
women  and  children  and  the  masacre  of  Lt.  Scott.  When  I 
reached  Ft.  Scott  I  found  it  out  of  supplies  and  no  alternative  left 
me  but  to  abandon  the  campaign,  or  to  force  my  way  to  the  bay 
of  Appalachicola  and  risque  meeting  supplies  I  had  ordered  from 
N.  Orleans.  I  chose  the  latter  —  and  succeeded.  Having  ob 
tained  eight  days  rations  for  my  men  I  immediately  marched  on 
Muckasookey,  where  the  strength  of  the  enemy  was  collected,  first 
apprising  the  Governor  of  Pensacola  why  I  had  entered  the 
Floridas,  to  wit,  not  as  the  enemy  but  as  the  friend  of  Spain ;  as 
Spain  had  acknowledged  her  incapacity,  through  her  weakness  to 
control  the  Indians  within  her  terrritory  and  keep  them  at  peace 
with  the  United  States,  self-defence  justified  our  entering  her 
territory  and  doing  that  for  her  which  she  had  bound  herself  to 
do  by  solem  treaty  —  that  as  I  was  engaged  fighting  the  battles 
of  Spain  I  had  a  right  and  did  calculate  on  receiving  all  the  facili 
ties  in  the  power  of  the  agents  of  Spain  that  would  aid  me  in  put 
ting  a  speedy  end  to  the  war ;  advising  the  Governor  in  the  same 
letter  that  I  had  ordered  supplies  up  the  for  my  army  to 

Ft  Crawford,  which  I  trusted  would  be  permitted  to  pass  unmolested 


FRONTIERSMAN    AND   SOLDIER  261 

without  any  delay  occasioned  by  the  agents  of  Spain,  but  should 
I  be  disappointed  in  my  expectation  of  the  friendly  dispositions 
of  the  agents  of  Spain,  or  should  my  supplies  be  interrupted  by 
them,  I  SHOULD  VIEW  IT  AS  AN  ACT  OF  WAR  AND  TREAT  IT  ACCORD 
INGLY.  I  received  in  answer  to  this  friendly  letter  a  positive 
declaration  that  my  provisions  should  not  pass  ;  the  supplies  were 
by  the  Governor  seized  at  Pensacola  under  a  demand  of  transit 
duties,  and  my  whole  army  thereby  made  subject  to  starvation, 
and  which  I  never  got  until  I  entered  Pensacola.  I  proceeded 
against  Muckasookey,  routed  and  dispersed  the  enemy,  taking 
some  prisoners  from  whom  I  learned  that  the  Indians  received  all 
their  supplies  of  ammunition  from  Ft  Marks  thirty  miles  distant, 
and  that  the  noted  and  notorious  Francis  the  prophet  and  his 
party  had  retired  to  St.  Marks  with  all  his  booty  taken  from  Ft 
Scott ;  and  Inchqueen  and  his  party  had  retired  there  also  —  that 
the  ballance  of  the  Indians  had  fled  to  the  negroes  on  the  Sewan- 
ney  [Suwanee]  river.  I  was  also  informed  by  the  Governor  of 
Pensacola,  through  captains  Call  and  Gordon,  that  he  expected 
Ft  Marks  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Indians  and  negroes,  as  they 
had  made  demand  of  large  supplies  which  the  commander  was  not 
able  to  comply  with,  and  he  was  unable  to  defend  the  fort.  As 
soon  as  I  had  collected  the  corn  and  cattle  for  the  supply  of  my 
troops,  I  marched  on  Ft  Marks  —  when  I  reached  there  I  found 
that  Francis  and  party  had  been  in  the  fort,  that  the  garrison 
had  been  supplied  with  the  cattle  stolen  from  our  frontier,  that  our 
public  stores  were  the  granaries  of  our  enemy,  and  that  the  Indians 
had  been  supplied  with  all  of  munitions  of  war  by  the  comman 
dant —  and  that  the  notorious  Arbuthnot  was  then  in  the  garrison. 
I  demanded  possession  of  the  garrison  to  be  possessed  by  my 
troops  during  the  war,  and  untill  Spain  could  reinforce  it  with  as 
many  troops  as  would  insure  the  safety  of  our  frontier  and  a  ful 
fillment  of  the  treaty  with  the  U  States  on  the  part  of  Spain.  This 
was  refused  me.  I  saw  across  St.  Marks  river  the  smoke  of  my 
•enemy ;  delay  was  out  of  the  question.  I  seized  Arbuthnot  in  the 
garrison  and  took  possession  of  it.  The  noted  Francis,  who  had 
just  returned  with  a  brigadier  general's  commission,  a  good  rifle 
and  snuff-box  presented  by  the  Prince  Regent,  had  been  captured 
the  day  before  with  four  of  his  followers  by  Capt.  McKeever  whose 
vessell  they  had  visitted,  mistaking  it  for  a  vessell  expected  from 


262  ANDREW  JACKSON 

England  with  supplies  for  the  Indians,  as  he  stated.  I  ordered 
him  this  principle  chief  to  be  hung,  and  marched  the  next  day  for 
Sewanney,  where  I  routed  the  Indians  and  negroes,  took  Ambrister, 
a  British  officer  who  headed  the  negroes,  Arbuthnot's  schooner 
with  all  their  papers,  which  led  to  the  conviction  and  execution  of 
Arbuthnot  and  Capt.  Ambrister,  both  of  whom  was  executed  under 
sentence  of  a  court-martial  at  Ft.  Marks.  I  returned  to  Ft  Gads- 
den,  where  preparing  to  disband  the  militia  force  I  recd  informa 
tion  that  four  hundred  and  fifty  Indians  had  collected  in  Pensacola, 
was  fed  by  the  Governor,  and  a  party  furnished  by  the  governor 
had  issued  forth  and  in  one  night  slaughtered  eighteen  of  our 
citizens,  and  that  another  party  had,  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
governor,  and  being  furnished  by  him,  went  out  publickly,  mur 
dered  a  Mr.  Stokes  and  family,  and  had  in  open  day  returned  to 
Pensacola  and  sold  the  booty,  amongst  which  was  the  clothing 
of  Mr.  Stokes.  This  statement  was  corroborated  by  a  report  of 
Gov.  Bibb.  I  was  also  informed  that  the  provisions  I  had  ordered 
for  the  supply  of  Ft  Crawford  and  my  army  on  board  the  U.  States 
schooner  Amelia  was  seized  and  detained  at  Pensacola  with  a 
small  detachment  of  regulars  and  six  hundred  Tennesseans.  I 
marched  for  Pensacola ;  whilst  on  my  march  thither  I  was  met 
by  a  protest  of  the  governor  of  Pensacola,  ordering  me  out  of  the 
Floridas,  or  he  would  oppose  force  to  force  and  drive  me  out  of 
the  territory  of  Spain.  This  bold  measure  of  the  governor,  who 
had  alleged  weakness  as  the  cause  of  his  non-fulfillment  of  the 
treaty  with  the  U.  States,  when  united  with  the  facts  stated,  of 
which  I  then  had  positive  proof  —  that  at  that  time  a  large  number 
of  the  hostile  Indians  were  then  in  Pensacola,  who  I  had  dispersed 
east  of  the  Appalachicola  —  unmasked  the  duplicity  of  the  gov 
ernor  and  his  having  aided  and  abetted  the  Indians  in  the  war 
against  us.  I  hastened  my  steps,  entered  Pensacola,  took  posses 
sion  of  my  supplies.  The  governor  had  fled  from  the  city  to  the 
Barancas,  where  he  had  strongly  fortified  himself.  I  demanded 
possession  of  the  garrison  to  be  held  by  American  troops  until  a 
guarantee  should  be  given  for  the  fulfillment  of  the  treaty  and  the 
safety  of  the  frontier.  This  was  denyed.  I  approached  the  Bar 
ancas  with  one  9*  piece  and  5^5-  inch  howitzer.  They  opened 
their  batteries  upon  me.  It  was  returned  spiritedly  and  with  two 
pieces  against  forty  odd  mounted  of  24  [pounders  ?]  the  white  flag 


FRONTIERSMAN   AND   SOLDIER  263 

went  up  in  the  evening  and  the  capitulation  entered  into,  which 
you  have  seen.  It  is  true  I  had  my  ladders  ready  to  go  over  the 
wall  which  I  believe  the  garrison  discovered  and  was  afraid  of 
a  night  attack  and  surrendered.  When  the  flag  was  hoisted  the  [y] 
had  three  hundred  effectives  in  the  garrison  —  this  number  of 
Americans  would  have  kept  it  from  combined  Urope  [Europe]. 
There  was  one  Indian  wounded  in  the  garrison  and  the  others 
were  sent  out  in  the  night  across  the  bay  before  I  got  possession. 
Thus  Sir  I  have  given  you  a  concise  statement  of  the  facts  and  all 
I  regret  is  that  I  had  not  stormed  the  works,  captured  the  gov 
ernor,  put  him  on  his  trial  for  the  murder  of  Stokes  and  his  family, 
and  hung  him  for  the  deed.  I  could  adopt  no  other  way  to  "  put 
an  end  to  the  war  "  but  by  possessing  myself  of  the  stronghold 
that  was  an  asylum  to  the  enemy  and  afforded  them  the  means  of 
offence.  The  officers  of  Spain  having  by  their  acts  identified 
themselves  with  our  enemy,  became  such,  and  by  the  law  of  na 
tions  suBjected  themselves  to  be  treated  as  such.  Self  defence 
justified  me  in  every  act  I  did.  I  will  stand  justified  before  God 
and  all  Urope,  and  I  regret  that  our  government  has  extended 
the  courtesy  to  Spain  of  withdrawing  the  troops  from  Pensacola 
before  Spain  gave  a  guarantee  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  treaty  and 
the  safety  of  our  frontier.  It  was  an  act  of  courtesy  that  nothing 
but  the  insignificance  and  weakness  of  Spain  can  excuse,  but  it  is 
not  my  province  to  find  fault  with  the  acts  of  the  government,  but 
it  may  have  reason  to  repent  of  her  clemency. 

Make  a  tender  to  your  lady  of  my  sincere  respects  and  best  wishes 
for  her  happiness  and  receive  Sir  for  yourself  an  expression  of  my 
unfeigned  frendship  and  esteem  —  and  —  [I]  remain  respectfully 

Yr.  mo.  ob.  serv. 

ANDREW  JACKSON. 

P.  S.  My  eyes  are  weak  and  my 
hand  trembles  I  am  still  weak  and 
much  debilitated  Nothing  but  the 
hope  of  being  serviceable  to  the 
wishes  of  my  government  and  inter 
est  of  the  state  of  Tennessee  could 
have  induced  me  to  have  undertaken 
the  journey.  A.  J. 

The  Honble 

G.  W.  Campbell 

Minister  at  Russia 


264  ANDREW   JACKSON 

Endorsed  by  Mr.  Campbell  —  "  Gen.  Andrew  Jackson,  Chicka- 
saw  Nation,  5  Oct.  1818 

Rec*  25  ?  ^  1818-19 
7  Jany 

Giving  an  account  of  the  taking  possession  of  Pensacola." 
ansd  8.  Sept.  1819. 

This  letter  was  given  by  Major  Campbell  Brown  of  Spring  Hill, 
Tennessee  (a  grandson,  I  think,  of  G.  W.  Campbell),  to  Colonel 
Gantt ;  and  Colonel  Gantt  gave  it  to  the  Mercantile  Library  of 
St.  Louis,  where  it  is  to  be  found.  —  JOHN  FISKE. 


VII 
ANDREW   JACKSON 

AND   AMERICAN    DEMOCRACY   SEVENTY  YEARS   AGO 


VII 
ANDREW  JACKSON 

AND  AMERICAN   DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO 

THE  period  comprised  between  the  years  1815  and 
1860  —  between  our  second  war  with  England  and  our 
great  Civil  War  —  was  the  period  in  which  American 
society  was  more  provincial  in  character  than  at  any 
time  before  or  since.  By  provincialism  I  mean  the 
opposite  of  cosmopolitanism  ;  I  refer  to  the  state  of 
things  in  which  the  people  of  a  community  know  very 
little  about  other  communities  and  care  very  little  for 
foreign  ideas  and  foreign  affairs.  I  do  not  mean  to 
imply  that  the  community  thus  affected  with  provin 
cialism  is  necessarily  backward  in  its  civilization.  Pro 
vincialism  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  marks  of  backwardness, 
but  it  is  a  mark  that  is  often  found  in  the  foremost 
communities.  No  one  doubts  that  England  and  France 
stand  in  the  front  rank  among  civilized  nations ;  but 
when  a  Frenchman  in  good  society  thinks  that  the 
people  of  the  United  States  talk  Spanish,  or  when  a 
college-bred  man  in  England  imagines  Indians  in 
feathers  and  war-paint  prowling  in  the  backwoods  near 
Boston,  none  can  doubt  that  they  are  chargeable  with 
provincialism  in  a  very  gross  form  indeed.  This  sort 
of  dense  ignorance  is  apt  to  underlie  national  antipa 
thies,  and  when  manifested  between  the  different  parts 
of  a  common  country  it  is  accountable  for  what  we 

267 


268  ANDREW   JACKSON 

call  sectional  prejudice.  Such  antipathies  are  usually 
ill  founded.  That  human  nature  which  we  all  possess 
in  common  is  very  far  from  perfect,  but  after  all  it  is 
encouraging  to  find,  as  a  general  rule,  that  the  better 
we  understand  people  the  more  we  like  them.  If  all 
the  bitterness,  all  the  quarrels  and  bloodshed,  that  have 
come  from  sheer  downright  ignorance  were  to  be  elimi 
nated  from  the  annals  of  mankind,  those  annals  would 
greatly  shrink  in  volume.  It  is,  therefore,  devoutly  to 
be  wished  that  provincialism  may  by  and  by  perish, 
and  every  encouragement  should  be  given  to  the 
agencies  which  are  gradually  destroying  it,  such  as 
literature,  commerce,  and  travel,  enabling  the  people 
of  different  countries  to  exchange  ideas  and  learn 
something  about  each  other's  characters. 

American  provincialism  sixty  years  ago,  however, 
had  something  about  it  that  was  wrholesome.  A  great 
many  bad  things  have  their  good  sides,  and  in  looking 
back  upon  evils  that  we  have  got  rid  of,  we  can  some 
times  see  that  they  did  something  toward  checking 
other  evils.  An  exceedingly  foolish  and  barbarous 
custom  was  duelling;  but  it  doubtless  served  some 
what  to  restrain  that  graceless  impudence  which  some 
times  seems  threatening  in  turn  to  become  a  national 
misfortune.  So  with  provincialism ;  it  had  its  good 
side  in  so  far  as  it  was  a  reaction  against  the  old  colo 
nial  spirit  which  kept  our  minds  in  thraldom  to  Eu 
rope,  and  especially  to  England,  long  after  we  had  by 
force  of  arms  achieved  political  independence.  Before 
the  Revolutionary  War  we  were  kept  perpetually  re 
minded  of  England.  Most  of  the  colonial  governors 
and  revenue  officers,  and  many  of  the  judges,  received 
their  appointments  from  London.  Every  change  of 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO    269 

ministry  was  fraught  with  possibilities  affecting  our 
welfare.  Our  seaports  were  familiar  with  the  sight  of 
British  officials.  We  depended  upon  England  for  fine 
arts  and  fashions,  as  well  as  for  a  great  many  of  the 
manufactured  articles  in  common  use.  We  read  Brit 
ish  historians  and  essayists,  quoted  British  poets,  and 
taught  our  children  out  of  British  text-books.  We  felt 
that  the  centre  of  things  was  in  Europe,  while  we  were 
comparatively  raw  communities  on  the  edge  of  a  vast 
continent,  much  of  which  was  still  unexplored  and  the 
greater  part  of  it  a  wilderness  possessed  by  horrid  sav 
ages.  This  state  of  feeling  lasted  for  some  time  after 
the  Revolution.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century  our  politi 
cal  contests  related  quite  as  much  to  foreign  as  to 
domestic  questions.  The  horrors  of  the  French  Revo 
lution  made  the  Federalists  an  English  party;  they 
looked  upon  England  as  the  guardian  of  law  and  order 
in  Europe.  The  Republicans,  on  the  other  hand,  ap 
plauded  the  overthrow  of  a  miserable  despotism  and 
sympathized  with  the  ideas  of  revolutionary  France. 
They  accused  the  Federalists  of  leanings  toward  mon 
archy  ;  they  called  them  aristocrats  and  snobs,  and 
thought  it  very  mean  in  them  to  turn  a  cold  shoulder 
to  the  people  who  had  helped  us  win  our  independence. 
But  it  was  not  merely  a  question  of  our  sympathies; 
we  were  really  forced  into  taking  sides.  During  nearly 
the  whole  of  this  period  France  and  England  were  at 
war  with  each  other,  and  in  accordance  with  the  bar 
baric  system  then  prevalent,  their  privateers  preyed 
upon  the  shipping  of  neutral  nations.  As  we  had  not 
then  discovered  how  to  protect  ships  out  of  existence, 
we  did  a  very  large  and  profitable  carrying  trade.  Our 
ships  were  the  best  in  the  world,  and  no  other  neutral 


270  ANDREW   JACKSON 

nation,  unless  it  may  have  been  Holland,  had  so  many 
on  the  ocean.  This  fact  kept  foreign  politics  in  the 
foreground  until  the  culmination  of  the  long  quarrel 
was  reached  in  the  War  of  1812-1815.  That  war  has 
been  called,  with  much  propriety,  our  second  war  of 
independence.  It  taught  other  nations  that  we  were 
not  to  be  insulted  with  impunity,  and  it  set  our  politics 
free  from  European  complications.  The  year  1815 
marks  an  epoch  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  It  was 
the  beginning  of  thirty  years  of  peace,  during  which, 
in  America  as  in  England,  attention  could  be  devoted 
to  political  and  social  reforms.  Great  and  exciting 
questions  of  domestic  politics  soon  came  up  to  occupy 
the  attention  of  Americans,  and  their  thoughts  were 
much  less  intimately  concerned  with  what  people  were 
saying  and  doing  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean.  We 
also  paid  less  attention  to  European  manners  and 
fashions.  Our  statesmen  of  the  Revolutionary  period 
dressed  very  much  like  Englishmen,  and  since  the 
Civil  War  it  is  so  again.  But  in  the  intermediate 
period,  between  1815  and  1860,  we  had  the  bright  blue 
coat  with  brass  buttons  and  the  buff  waistcoat,  such  as 
Daniel  Webster  used  to  wear  when  he  made  those  im 
mortal  speeches  that  did  so  much  to  enkindle  a  pas 
sionate  love  for  the  Union  and  make  it  strong  enough 
to  endure  the  shock  of  war.  That  blue  dress-coat  with 
brass  buttons  was  the  visible  symbol  of  the  period  of 
narrow,  boastful,  provincial,  but  wholesome  and  much- 
needed,  Americanism. 

Now,  this  feeling  of  Americanism  grew  up  more 
rapidly  and  acquired  greater  intensity  in  the  new 
states  west  of  the  mountains  than  in  the  old  states 
on  the  seaboard.  Observe  the  surprising  rapidity 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO   271 

with  which  these  new  states  were  formed,  as  the 
obstacles  to  migration  were  removed.  The  chief 
obstacles  had  been  the  hostility  of  the  Indians,  and 
the  difficulty  of  getting  from  place  to  place.  During 
the  late  war  the  Indian  power  had  been  broken  by 
Harrison  in  the  North  and  by  Jackson 1  in  the  South. 
In  1807  Robert  Fulton  had  invented  the  steamboat. 
In  1811  a  steamboat  was  launched  on  the  Ohio  River 
at  Pittsburg,  and  presently  such  nimble  craft  were 
plying  on  all  the  Western  rivers,  carrying  settlers  and 
traders,  farm  produce  and  household  utensils.  This 
gave  an  immense  impetus  to  the  Western  migration. 
After  Ohio  had  been  admitted  to  the  Union  in  1802, 
ten  years  had  elapsed  before  the  next  state,  Louisiana, 
was  added.  But  in  six  years  after  the  war  a  new 
state  was  added  every  year:  Indiana  in  1816,  Missis 
sippi  in  1817,  Illinois  in  1818,  Alabama  in  1819,  Maine 
in  1820,  Missouri  in  1821  ;  all  but  one  of  them  west  of 
the  Alleghanies,  one  of  them  west  of  the  Mississippi. 
In  President  Monroe's  second  term,  while  there  were 
thirty  senators  from  the  Atlantic  states,  there  were  al 
ready  eighteen  from  the  West.  It  was  evident  that 
the  political  centre  of  gravity  was  moving  westward 
at  a  very  rapid  rate. 

In  the  new  Southern  states  thus  created  below  the 
thirty-sixth  parallel  the  South  Carolinian  type  of 
society  prevailed.  In  all  the  others  there  was  an  ex 
tensive  and  complicated  mixing  of  people  from  dif 
ferent  Atlantic  states.  Toward  1840,  after  Ericsson's 


1 "  It  has  been  pleasant  too  to  revise  many  of  my  ideas  and  opinions  : 
for  my  youthful  memories  go  back  to  the  days  when  Jackson  was  like  a 
bogy  to  frighten  naughty  children  !  Boston  was  a  place  of  one  idea  then." 
Extract  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  James  Day  to  Dr.  Fiske. 


272  ANDREW   JACKSON 

invention  of  the  screw  propeller  had  set  up  the  new 
migration  of  foreigners  from  Europe,  and  after  the 
great  stream  of  New  Englanders  had  begun  to  pour 
into  the  Northwest,  the  mixing  became  still  more 
complicated.  The  effect  of  this  was  excellent  in 
shaking  men's  ideas  out  of  the  old  ruts,  in  bringing 
together  people  of  somewhat  various  habits  and 
associations,  in  breaking  down  artificial  social  dis 
tinctions,  in  broadening  the  range  of  sympathy,  and 
in  adding  to  the  heartiness  and  cordiality  of  manner. 
This  new  society  was  much  more  completely  demo 
cratic  than  that  of  the  Atlantic  states,  and  it  soon 
began  powerfully  to  react  upon  the  latter.  During 
the  period  of  which  I  am  speaking  most  of  the  states 
remodelled  or  amended  their  constitutions  in  such 
wise  as  to  make  them  more  democratic.  There  was 
an  extension  of  the  suffrage,  a  shortening  of  terms 
of  office,  and  a  disposition  to  make  all  offices  elective. 
There  was  much  that  was  wholesome  in  this  demo 
cratic  movement,  but  there  was  also  some  crudeness, 
and  now  and  then  a  lamentable  mistake  was  made. 
Perhaps  the  worst  instance  was  that  of  electing  judges 
for  limited  terms  instead  of  having  them  appointed 
for  life  or  during  good  behaviour.  In  particular  cases 
the  system  may  work  fairly  well,  but  its  general  ten 
dency  is  demoralizing  to  bench  and  bar  alike,  and  I 
believe  it  to  be  one  of  the  most  crying  abominations 
by  which  our  country  is  afflicted.  Taken  in  connec 
tion  with  the  disposition  to  seek  violent  redress  for 
injuries,  and  with  the  mawkish  humanitarianism  of 
which  criminals  are  so  quick  to  take  advantage,  it 
has  done  much  to  diminish  the  security  of  life  and 
property  and  to  furnish  a  valid  excuse  for  the  rough 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO    273 

and  ready  methods  of  Judge  Lynch.  It  is  encourag 
ing  to  observe  at  the  present  time  some  symptoms 
of  a  disposition  to  return  to  the  older  and  sounder 
method  of  making  judges.  Good  sense  is  so  strongly 
developed  among  our  people  that  we  may  reasonably 
calculate  upon  their  profiting  by  hard  experience  and 
correcting  their  own  errors  in  the  long  run.  It  is 
far  better  that  popular  errors  should  be  corrected  in 
this  way  than  by  some  beneficent  autocratic  power, 
or  by  some  set  of  people  supposed  to  be  wiser  than 
others ;  and  this,  I  believe,  is  the  true  theory  of  de 
mocracy.  This  is  the  vital  point  which  Jefferson 
understood  so  much  more  clearly  than  Hamilton  and 
the  Federalists. 

But  in  the  period  of  which  I  am  speaking,  the 
theory  of  democracy  was  not  usually  taken  so  moder 
ately  as  this.  There  was  a  kind  of  democratic  fanati 
cism  in  the  air.  A  kind  of  metaphysical  entity  called 
the  People  (spelled  with  a  capital)  was  set  up  for  men 
to  worship.  Its  voice  was  the  voice  of  God  ;  and,  like 
the  king,  it  could  do  no  wrong.  It  had  lately  been 
enthroned  in  America,  and  was  going  shortly  to 
renovate  the  world.  People  began  to  forget  all  about 
the  slow  growth  of  our  constitutional  liberty  through 
ages  of  struggle  in  England  and  Scotland.  They  be 
gan  to  forget  all  about  our  own  colonial  period,  with 
its  strongly  marked  characters  and  its  political  lessons 
of  such  profound  significance.  A  habit  grew  up, 
which  has  not  yet  been  outgrown,  of  talking  about 
American  history  as  if  it  began  in  1776,  an  error  as 
fatal  to  all  correct  understanding  of  the  subject  as  that 
which  Englishmen  used  to  make  in  ignoring  their 
own  history  prior  to  the  Norman  Conquest.  We 


274  ANDREW  JACKSON 

began  to  look  upon  our  federal  Constitution  as  if  it 
had  been  suddenly  created  by  an  act  of  miraculous 
wisdom,  and  had  no  roots  in  European  soil.  It  was 
telt  that  our  institutions  were  hedged  about  by  a  kind 
of  divinity,  and  that  by  means  of  them  we  had  become 
better  than  other  nations ;  and,  in  our  implicit  reliance 
upon  the  infallible  wisdom  of  the  people,  we  went  to 
work  at  legislation  and  at  constitution-making  in  a 
much  less  sober  spirit  than  to-day.  As  for  Europe, 
we  exaggerated  its  political  shortcomings  most  egre- 
giously,  and  failed  to  see  that  it  could  have  any  political 
lessons  for  us.  The  expressions  most  commonly  heard 
about  Europe  were  "  pauper  labor  "  and  "  effete  dy 
nasties."  People  seldom  crossed  the  ocean  to  look  at 
things  over  there  with  their  own  eyes.  The  feeling 
with  which  children  then  grew  up  found  expression 
a  little  later  in  such  questions  as,  "  What  do  we  care 
for  abroad  ?  "  A  gentleman  who  has  been  speaker  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  and  major-general  in 
the  army  once  said  in  a  public  speech  that  too  much 
time  was  spent  in  studying  the  history  of  England , 
we  had  much  better  study  that  of  the  North  American 
Indians  ;  it  was  quite  enough  to  know  something  about 
the  continent  we  live  on,  the  rest  of  the  world  was 
hardly  worth  knowing.  At  one  time  even  the  pronun 
ciation  of  the  word  European  seemed  in  danger  of 
being  forgotten ;  it  was  quite  commonly  pronounced 
Europian. 

Those  were  the  days  of  spread-eagle  oratory  on  the 
Fourth  of  July,  and  whenever  people  were  assembled 
in  public,  the  days  when  ministers  in  the  pulpit  used 
to  thank  Heaven  that  "  in  spite  of  all  temptations  to 
belong  to  'other  nations  "  we  had  been  born  Americans. 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO   275 

They  were  the  days  when  Elijah  Pagram  could  silence 
all  cavillers  by  reminding  them  that  "  our  bright  home 
is  in  the  settin'  sun."  More  summary  were  the  meth 
ods  of  Mr.  Hannibal  Chollop.  "  Do  you  see  this 
pistol  ?  "  said  he  to  Martin  Chuzzlewit.  4k  I  shot  a  man 
down  with  it  the  other  day  in  the  state  of  Illinois.  I 
shot  him  for  asserting  in  the  Spartan  Portico,  a  tri 
weekly  journal,  that  the  ancient  Athenians  went  ahead 
of  the  present  locofoco  ticket."  Very  few  eminent 
persons  from  England  visited  the  United  States  in 
those  days,  and  it  was  quite  natural  that  those  who  did 
should  feel  called  upon,  after  going  home,  to  write 
books  recording  their  impressions  of  the  country  and 
the  people.  Such  books,  even  when  written  in  a 
friendly  spirit,  were  sure  to  give  mortal  offence  to  the 
Americans,  simply  because  it  was  impossible  for  the 
writers,  without  making  themselves  ridiculous,  to 
pile  up  superlatives  enough  to  satisfy  our  national 
vanity.  When  one  reads  Dickens's  "  American  Notes," 
in  which  he  treats  us  seriously,  one  finds  it  hard  to 
understand  the  storm  of  indignation  which  it  aroused, 
except  that  he  did  indeed  touch  upon  one  very  sensi 
tive  spot,  the  incongruity  between  negro  slavery  and 
our  fine  talk  about  the  rights  of  man.  In  "  Martin 
Chuzzlewit  "  he  made  fun  of  us  ;  but  the  good-natured 
banter  which  enraged  our  fathers  only  makes  us  laugh 
to-day.  Dickens  was  friendly,  Mrs.  Trollope  was  not. 
"  To  speak  plainly,"  said  she,  "  I  do  not  like  the 
Americans."  The  poor  woman  had  entered  our 
country  by  what  was  then  one  of  its  back  doors.  She 
had  landed  at  New  Orleans  and  gone  up  by  river 
to  Cincinnati,  where  circumstances  obliged  her  to  live 
for  more  than  a  year  in  the  old  times  when  countless 


276  ANDREW  JACKSON 

pigs  ran  wild  in  the  unpaved  streets  of  the  frontier 
town.  Any  one  who  wishes  to  understand  American 
democracy  sixty  years  ago  should  read  her  book.  It 
is  evidently  a  truthful  account  of  a  state  of  society  in 
which  very  few  of  us  would  find  it  pleasant  to  live,  and 
it  is  amusing  to  see  the  naivete  with  which  the  writer's 
expressions  become  mollified  as  on  her  homeward 
journey  she  reaches  Philadelphia  and  New  York.  It 
is  noticeable  that  the  examples  of  Americanism  quoted 
by  English  travellers  of  that  day  were  almost  always 
taken,  from  the  West.  They  had  very  little  to  say 
about  Boston  because  it  was  too  much  like  an  Eng 
lish  town.  They  came  in  search  of  novelty  and  found 
it  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  as  they  now  find  it 
in  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

No  such  novelty,  however,  can  the  European  trav 
eller  find  anywhere  in  the  United  States  to-day  as 
that  which  so  astonished  him  half  a  century  ago. 
The  period  of  provincialism  which  I  have  sought  to 
describe  came  to  an  end  with  our  Civil  War.  The 
overthrow  of  slavery  removed  one  barrier  to  the  sym 
pathy  between  America  and  western  Europe.  The 
sacrifices  we  had  to  make  in  order  to  save  our  coun 
try  intensified  our  love  for  it,  but  diminished  our 
boastful  ness.  In  a  chastened  spirit  we  were  enabled 
to  see  that  even  in  American  institutions  there  might 
be  elements  of  weakness,  that  perhaps  the  experience 
of  other  nations  might  have  lessons  worthy  of  our 
study,  and  that  the  whole  world  is  none  too  wide  a 
field  wherefrom  to  gather  wisdom.  Moreover,  the 
railroad  and  telegraph,  two  of  the  mightiest  agencies 
yet  devised  for  hastening  the  millennium,  have  already 
wrought  a  marvellous  transformation,  which  is  but  the 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO    277 

harbinger  of  greater  transformations,  in  the  opinions 
and  sentiments  and  mental  habits  of  men  and  women 
in  all  civilized  countries.  Nowhere  have  the  compli 
cated  effects  been  more  potent  or  more  marked  than 
in  the  United  States.  Every  part  of  our  vast  domain 
has  been  brought  into  easy  contact  with  all  four  quar 
ters  of  the  globe.  Australia  and  Zululand  are  less 
remote  from  us  to-day  than  England  was  in  Jackson's 
time.  We  go  back  and  forth  across  the  Atlantic  in 
crowds,  and  we  exchange  ideas  with  the  whole  world. 
We  are  becoming  daily  more  and  more  cosmopolitan, 
and  are,  perhaps,  as  much  in  the  centre  of  things  as 
any  people. 

However,  as  I  said  a  moment  ago,  the  old  provin 
cial  spirit  of  Americanism  was  in  its  day  eminently 
useful  and  wholesome.  The  swagger  and  tall  talk 
was  simply  the  bubbling  forth  that  accompanied  the 
fermentation  of  a  vigorous  and  hopeful  national  spirit, 
but  for  which  we  might  long  before  this  have  been 
broken  up  into  a  group  of  little  spiteful,  squabbling 
republics,  with  custom-houses  and  sentinels  in  uni 
form  scattered  along  every  state  line.  The  second 
war  with  England  was  the  first  emphatic  assertion  of 
this  national  spirit.  Before  that  time  the  sentiment 
of  union  was  weak.  In  1786  nearly  all  the  states 
were,  for  various  reasons,  snarling  and  showing  their 
teeth.  In  1799  Kentucky  uttered  a  growl  in  which 
something  was  heard  that  sounded  like  nullification. 
In  1804  Timothy  Pickering  dallied  with  a  scheme,  to 
which  it  was  hoped  that  Aaron  Burr  might  lend  assist 
ance,  for  a  Northern  confederacy  of  New  England  and 
New  York,  with  the  possible  addition  of  New  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania.  In  1808  some  of  the  New  Eng- 


278  ANDREW   JACKSON 

land  Federalists,  enraged  at  Jefferson's  embargo,  enter 
tained  thoughts  of  secession,  and  in  1814  there  was 
mischief  brewing  at  Hartford.  It  was  the  result  of 
the  war  with  Great  Britain  that  dealt  the  first  stagger 
ing  blow  to  these  separatist  tendencies.  In  that  grand 
result,  so  far  as  the  naval  victories  were  concerned,  the 
chief  credit  was  won  by  New  England,  and  it  went  far 
toward  setting  the  popular  sentiment  in  that  part  of 
the  country  out  of  gear  with  the  schemes  of  the  moss- 
back  Federalist  leaders.  But  as  regarded  the  land 
victories  and  the  whole  political  situation,  the  chief 
credit  accrued  to  the  West.  It  was  the  much-loved 
statesman,  "  Harry  of  the  West,"  the  eloquent  Henry 
Clay,  that  had  prevailed  upon  the  country  to  appeal 
to  arms,  in  spite  of  the  wrath  of  the  New  Englanders 
and  the  misgivings  of  President  Madison.  It  was  the 
invincible  soldier  of  Tennessee  that  crowned  the  work 
with  a  prodigious  victory.  Had  the  war  ended  simply 
with  the  treaty  of  Ghent,  which  did  not  give  us  quite 
so  much  as  we  wanted,  the  discontent  of  New  Eng 
land  would  probably  have  continued.  It  was  the  battle 
of  New  Orleans  that  killed  New  England  federalism. 
It  struck  a  chord  of  patriotic  feeling  to  which  the  peo 
ple  of  New  England  responded  promptly.  The  Fed 
eralist  leaders  were  at  once  discredited,  and  not  a  man 
that  had  gone  to  the  Hartford  convention  but  had 
hard  work,  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  to  regain  the  full 
confidence  of  his  fellow-citizens.  In  the  presidential 
election  of  1816  the  Federalists  still  contrived  to  get 
thirty-four  electoral  votes  for  Rufus  King.  In  1820 
they  did  not  put  forward  any  candidate;  their  party 
was  dead  and  buried.  All  but  one  of  the  electoral 
votes  were 'given  to  James  Monroe.  One  elector  cast 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO    279 

his  vote  for  John  Quincy  Adams,  just  as  a  matter  of 
form,  in  order  that  no  President  after  Washington 
might  be  chosen  by  an  absolutely  unanimous  vote. 

This  was  what  we  called  the  "  era  of  good  feeling." 
The  war  had  disposed  of  the  old  issues,  and  the  new 
ones  had  not  yet  shaped  themselves.  As  all  the  can 
didates  for  the  election  of  1824  were  called  Republi 
cans,  the  issues  between  them  seemed  to  be  purely  of 
a  personal  nature.  There  was  a  genuine  political 
force  at  work,  however,  and  a  very  strong  one.  This 
was  the  spirit  of  reaction  against  European  ideas,  the 
bumptious  and  boisterous  democratic  Americanism  of 
the  young  West.  The  backwoodsmen  and  Mississippi 
traders  were  to  be  represented  in  the  White  House,  in 
spite  of  Virginia  planters  and  Harvard  professors. 
There  was  a  wish  to  put  an  end  to  what  some  people 
called  the  "  Virginia  dynasty "  of  Presidents ;  and  it 
was  with  this  in  view  that  Clay  kept  up,  during  Mon 
roe's  administration,  an  opposition  that  was  sometimes 
factious.  It  was,  for  instance,  partly  because  Monroe 
had  sanctioned  Jackson's  measures  in  Florida,  that 
Clay  and  his  friends  felt  bound  to  attack  them,  thus 
laying  the  foundations  of  the  lifelong  feud  between 
Clay  and  Jackson.  In  1823,  when  the  latter  resigned 
the  governorship  of  Florida  arid  took  his  seat  in  the 
United  States  Senate,  he  had  already  been  nominated 
by  the  legislature  of  Tennessee  as  the  candidate  of 
that  state  for  the  presidency.  Some  of  his  friends, 
under  the  lead  of  William  Lewis,  had  even  two  years 
earlier  conceived  the  idea  of  making  him  President 
At  first  General  Jackson  cast  ridicule  upon  the  idea. 
"  Do  they  suppose,"  said  he,  "  that  I  am  such  a  d — d 
fool  as  to  think  myself  fit  for  President  of  the  United 


280  ANDREW   JACKSON 

States  ?  No,  sir.  I  know  what  I  am  fit  for.  I  can 
command  a  body  of  men  in  a  rough  way ;  but  I  am 
not  fit  to  be  President."  Such  is  the  anecdote  told  by 
H.  M.  Brackenridge,  who  was  Jackson's  secretary  in 
Florida  (Parton,  II.  354).  At  this  time  the  general 
felt  old  and  weak,  and  had  made  up  his  mind  to  spend 
the  remainder  of  his  days  in  peace  on  his  farm.  Of 
personal  ambition,  as  ordinarily  understood,  Jackson 
seems  to  have  had  much  less  than  many  other  men. 
But  he  was,  like  most  men,  susceptible  to  flattery,  and 
the  discovery  of  his  immense  popularity  no  doubt 
went  far  to  persuade  him  that  he  might  do  credit  to 
himself  as  President.1  On  the  4th  of  March,  1824,  he 

1  JACKSON,  CRAWFORD,  AND  ADAMS  IN  1824 

(Extract  from  a  manuscript  letter  of  John  A.  Dix,  dated  Washington,  22d  February, 

1824) 

"Mr.  Calhoun's  chances  of  success  depended  on  the  course  of  Pennsyl 
vania.  This  state,  it  appears,  will  support  the  hero  of  New  Orleans,  and 
Mr.  Calhoun's  fate  is  sealed.  My  opinion  is  that  the  West  will  renounce 
Mr.  Clay's  persuasion,  and  will  very  generally  support  Gen.  Jackson.  Mr. 
A.,  Mr.  Crawford,  and  Gen.  J.  therefore  remain  the  strong  competitors. 
Between  these  three  I  have  certainly  a  very  decided  choice.  Mr.  Craw 
ford's  connection  with  the  Radical  party,  his  doubtful  principles  and  disin 
genuous  course  in  the  administration  forbid  me  to  desire  his  elevation. 
Mr.  A.  has  extraordinary  merits.  His  extensive  acquirements,  incorrupti 
ble  morals,  and  devotion  to  his  country's  service  furnish  him  with  the 
strongest  and  most  indisputable  claims.  But  he  is,  I  fear,  little  fitted  for 
popular  government.  No  man  would  administer  an  absolute  system  bet 
ter,  because  he  would  never  prostitute  the  possession  of  power  to  corrupt 
or  tyrannical  ends.  But  I  am  apprehensive  that  he  will  be  found  to  pos 
sess  very  little  talent  for  managing  men,  which  is  the  most  important  of  all 
qualities  under  a  government  where  the  people  have  so  immediate  a  par 
ticipation,  as  under  ours,  in  the  business  of  administration.  I  fear,  there 
fore,  should  he  be  elected,  that  his  administration  will  be  disturbed  by 
dangerous  and  distracting  feuds.  Swayed  by  apprehensions  like  these, 
...  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  wish  for  Gen.  Jackson's  success.  The 
character  of  this  great  man  is  not  at  all  understood.  He  has  been  induced 
to  adopt  violent  measures  for  the  attainment  of  useful  ends,  but  I  am  con 
vinced  by  what  I  have  seen  this  winter,  that  he  is  a  good  man,  and  that  he 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO   281 

was  nominated  in  a  frenzy  of  enthusiasm  by  a  conven 
tion  at  Harrisburg,  in  Pennsylvania.  The  regular 
nominee  of  the  congressional  caucus  was  W.  H.  Craw 
ford  of  Georgia.  The  other  candidates  were  Henry 
Clay  and  John  Quincy  Adams.  For  the  Vice-presi 
dent  there  was  a  general  agreement  upon  Calhoun. 
There  was  no  opposition  between  the  Northern  and 
the  Southern  states.  Such  an  issue  had  been  raised 
fora  moment  in  1820,  but  the  Missouri  Compromise 
had  settled  it  so  effectually  that  it  was  not  to  be  heard 
of  again  for  several  years,  and  the  credit  of  this  had  been 
largely  due  to  Clay.  All  the  four  candidates  belonged 
nominally  to  the  Republican  party,  but  in  their  attitude 
toward  the  Constitution  Adams  and  Clay  were  loose 
constructionists,  while  Crawford  and  Jackson  were 
strict  constructionists,  and  in  this  difference  was  fore 
shadowed  a  new  division  of  parties.  At  the  election 
in  November,  1824,  Mr.  Crawford,  who  stood  for  the 
"  Virginia  dynasty  "  in  a  certain  sense,  received  the 
entire  electoral  votes  of  Georgia  and  Virginia,  with  5 
votes  from  New  York,  2  from  Delaware,  and  i  from 
Maryland.  Mr.  Adams  had  all  the  New  England 
votes,  with  26  from  New  York,  i  from  Delaware,  3 
from  Maryland,  i  from  Illinois,  2  from  Louisiana. 
Mr.  Clay  had  the  entire  vote  of  Missouri,  Kentucky, 
and  Ohio,  with  4  from  New  York.  General  Jackson 
received  the  entire  votes  of  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 

knows  how  to  govern  his  passions.  ...  It  is  a  principal  object  with  the 
sound  politicians  of  the  country  to  abolish  party  distinctions  and  to  elevate 
talent  wherever  it  is  found.  But  as  Mr.  Adams  has  been  a  Federalist,  the 
least  inclination  towards  federal  men  or  federal  measures  would  excite 
alarm  and  disturb  his  popularity.  Gen.  Jackson,  having  always  been  a 
violent  Democrat,  might  avail  himself  of  the  talents  of  the  Federal  party 
without  danger,  and  no  one  believes  that  he  would  be  a  party  man.1" 


282  ANDREW  JACKSON 

both  Carolinas,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and 
Indiana,  with  7  from  Maryland,  i  from  New  York,  3 
from  Louisiana,  and  2  from  Illinois.  All  of  Craw 
ford's  41  electoral  votes  were  from  the  original  sea 
board  states.  Of  Adams's  84  votes,  all  but  3  were 
from  the  same  quarter.  Of  Clay's  37,  all  but  4  were 
from  the  West.  To  Jackson's  99  the  West  contributed 
29,  the  East  70.  If  Jackson  could  have  had  Clay's 
Western  vote  in  addition  to  his  own,  it  would  have 
made  132,  which  was  one  more  than  the  number  nec 
essary  for  a  choice.  The  power  of  the  West  was  thus 
distinctly  shown  for  the  first  time  in  a  national  elec 
tion.  As  none  of  the  candidates  had  a  majority,  it 
was  left  for  the  House  of  Representatives  to  choose  a 
President  from  the  three  names  highest  on  the  list,  in 
accordance  with  the  twelfth  amendment  to  the  Consti 
tution.  Clay  was  thus  rendered  ineligible,  and  there 
was  naturally  some  scheming  among  the  friends  of  the 
other  candidates  to  secure  his  powerful  cooperation. 
Clay's  feeling  toward  Adams  had  for  some  time  been 
unfriendly,  but  on  the  other  hand  there  was  no  love 
lost  between  Jackson  and  Clay,  and  the  latter  was  of 
course  sincere  in  his  opinion  that  Adams  was  a  states 
man  and  Jackson  nothing  but  a  soldier.  It  was  not  in 
the  least  strange,  under  the  circumstances,  that  Clay 
should  throw  his  influence  in  favour  of  Adams.  It 
would  have  been  strange  if  he  had  not  done  so.  The 
result  was  that  when  in  the  House  the  vote  was  taken 
by  states,  there  were  13  for  Adams,  7  for  Jackson,  and 
4  for  Crawford.  Adams  thus  became  President,  and 
Jackson's  friends,  in  their  bitter  disappointment,  hun 
gered  for  a  "grievance"  upon  which  they  might  vent 
their  displeasure,  and  which  might  serve  as  a  "  rally- 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY   YEARS  AGO    283 

ing  cry  "  for  the  next  campaign.  Benton  went  so  far 
as  to  maintain  that  because  Jackson  had  a  greater 
number  of  electoral  votes  than  any  other  candidate, 
the  House  was  virtually  "  defying  the  will  of  the  peo 
ple  "  in  choosing  any  name  but  his.  To  this  it  was 
easily  answered  that  in  any  case  our  electoral  college, 
which  was  one  of  the  most  deliberately  framed  devices 
of  the  Constitution,  gives  but  a  very  indirect  and  par 
tial  expression  of  the  "  will  of  the  people " ;  and 
furthermore,  if  Benton's  arguments  were  sound,  why 
should  the  Constitution  have  provided  for  an  election 
by  Congress,  instead  of  allowing  a  simple  plurality  in 
the  college  to  decide  the  election  ?  The  extravagance 
of  Benton's  objection,  coming  from  so  able  a  source,  is 
an  index  to  the  bitter  disappointment  of  Jackson's  fol 
lowers.  The  needed  "  grievance  "  was  furnished  when 
Adams  selected  Clay  as  his  Secretary  of  State.  Many 
of  Jackson's  friends  interpreted  this  appointment  as 
the  result  of  a  bargain  whereby  Clay  had  made  Adams 
President  in  consideration  of  obtaining  the  first  place 
in  the  cabinet,  carrying  with  it,  according  to  the  notion 
then  prevalent,  a  fair  prospect  of  the  succession  to  the 
presidency.  It  was  natural  enough  for  the  friends  of 
a  disappointed  candidate  to  make  such  a  charge.  It 
was  to  Benton's  credit  that  he  always  scouted  the  idea 
of  a  corrupt  bargain  between  Adams  and  Clay.  Many 
people,  however,  believed  it.  In  Congress,  John  Ran 
dolph's  famous  allusion  to  the  "  coalition  between 
Blifil  and  Black  George — the  Puritan  and  the  black 
leg — "  led  to  a  duel  between  Randolph  and  Clay, 
which  served  to  impress  the  matter  upon  the  popular 
mind  without  enlightening  it;  the  pistol  is  of  small 
value  as  an  agent  of  enlightenment.  The  charge  was 


284  ANDREW  JACKSON 

utterly  without  support  and  in  every  way  improbable. 
The  excellence  of  the  appointment  of  Clay  was  beyond 
cavil,  and  the  sternly  upright  Adams  was  less  influ 
enced  by  what  people  might  think  of  his  actions  than 
any  other  President  since  Washington.  But  in  this 
case  he  was  perhaps  too  independent.  The  appoint 
ment  was  no  doubt  ill-considered.  It  made  it  neces 
sary  for  Clay,  in  many  a  public  speech,  to  defend  him 
self  against  the  imputation.  To  mention  the  charge  to 
Jackson,  whose  course  in  Florida  had  been  censured 
by  Clay,  was  enough  to  make  him  believe  it ;  and  he 
did  so  to  his  dying  day. 

It  is  not  likely  that  the  use  made  of  this  "griev 
ance"  had -any  decisive  effect  in  securing  victory  for 
Jackson  in  1828.  Doubtless  it  helped  him,  but  the 
causes  of  his  success  lay  far  deeper.  The  stream  of 
democratic  tendency  was  swelling  rapidly.  Hereto 
fore  our  Presidents  had  been  men  of  aristocratic  type, 
with  advantages  of  wealth  or  education  or  social  train 
ing.  In  a  marked  degree  all  these  advantages  were 
united  in  John  Qtiincy  Adams.  He  was  the  most 
learned  of  all  our  Presidents.  He  had  been  a  Har 
vard  professor.  He  was  a  trained  diplomatist,  and 
had  lived  much  in  Europe.  He  was  an  able  admin 
istrative  officer.  In  his  character  there  was  real 
grandeur.  For  bulldog  courage  and  tenacity  he 
was  much  like  Jackson,  but  in  other  respects  a 
stronger  contrast  than  the  two  men  afforded  cannot 
well  be  imagined.  Curiously  enough,  in  point  of 
politeness  and  grace  of  manner,  the  backwoodsman 
far  surpassed  the  diplomatist.  A  man  with  less 
training  in  statesmanship  than  Jackson  would  have 
been  hard  to  find.  In  his  defects  he  represented 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO    285 

average  humanity,  while  his  excellences  were  such 
as  the  most  illiterate  citizen  could  appreciate.  In 
such  a  man  the  ploughboy  and  the  blacksmith  could 
feel  that  in  some  essential  respects  they  had  for  Presi 
dent  one  of  their  own  sort.  Above  all,  he  was  the 
great  military  hero  of  the  day,  and  as  such  he  came 
to  the  presidency  as  naturally  as  Taylor  and  Grant 
in  later  days,  as  naturally  as  his  contemporary  Wel 
lington,  without  any  training  in  statesmanship,  be 
came  prime  minister  of  England.  A  man  far  more 
politic  and  complaisant  than  Adams  could  not  have 
won  the  election  of  1828  against  such  odds.  He 
obtained  83  electoral  votes  against  178  for  Jackson. 
Calhoun  was  reflected  Vice-president.  In  this  elec 
tion  the  votes  of  New  York  and  Maryland  were 
divided  almost  equally  between  the  two  candidates. 
Jackson  got  one  electoral  vote  from  Maine.  All  the 
rest  of  New  England,  with  New  Jersey  and  Dela 
ware,  went  for  Adams.  Jackson  carried  Pennsyl 
vania,  Virginia,  both  Carolinas,  and  Georgia,  and 
everything  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  from  the  Lakes 
to  the  Gulf.  There  were  many  Western  districts  in 
which  Adams  did  not  get  a  single  vote.  After  this 
sweeping  victory  Jackson  came  to  the  presidency 
with  a  feeling  that  he  had  at  length  succeeded  in 
making  good  his  claim  to  a  violated  righ't,  and  this 
feeling  had  its  influence  upon  his  conduct. 

In  Jackson's  cabinet,  as  first  constituted,  Martin 
Van  Buren  of  New  York  was  Secretary  of  State; 
S.  D.  Ingham  of  Pennsylvania  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury;  J.  H.  Eaton  of  Tennessee  Secretary  of 
War;  John  Branch  of  North  Carolina  Secretary  of 
the  Navy;  J.  M.  Berrien  of  Georgia  Attorney-gen- 


286  ANDREW   JACKSON 

eral;  W.  T.  Barry  of  Kentucky  Postmaster-general. 
With  the  exception  of  Van  Buren,  as  compared  with 
members  of  earlier  cabinets,  —  not  merely  with  such 
men  as  Hamilton,  Madison,  or  Gallatin,  but  with 
such  as  Pickering,  Wolcott,  Monroe,  or  even  Craw 
ford,  —  these  were  obscure  names.  The  innovation 
in  the  personal  character  of  the  cabinet  was  even 
more  marked  than  the  innovation  in  the  presidency. 
The  autocratic  Jackson  employed  his  secretaries  as 
clerks.  His  confidential  advisers  were  a  few  intimate 
friends  who  held  no  important  offices.  These  men 
—  W.  B.  Lewis,  Amos  Kendall,  Duff  Green,  and 
Isaac  Hill  —  came  to  be  known  as  the  "kitchen 
cabinet."  Major  Lewis  was  an  old  friend  who  had 
much  to  do  with  bringing  Jackson  forward  for  the 
presidency.  The  other  three  were  editors  of  parti 
san  newspapers.  Kendall  was  a  man  of  considerable 
ability  and  many  good  qualities,  including  a  plentiful 
supply  of  those  virtuous  intentions  wherewith  a  cer 
tain  part  of  the  universe  is  said  to  be  paved.  He 
was  what  would  now  be  called  a  "  machine  politician." 
On  many  occasions  he  was  the  ruling  spirit  of  the 
administration,  and  the  cause  of  some  of  its  worst 
mistakes.  Jackson's  career  cannot  be  fully  under 
stood  without  taking  into  account  the  agency  of 
Kendall ;  yet  it  is  not  always  easy  to  assign  the 
character  and  extent  of  the  influence  which  he 
exerted. 

A  yet  more  notable  innovation  was  Jackson's  treat 
ment  of  the  civil  service.  This  was  the  great  blunder 
and  scandal  of  his  administration,  and  because  we  are 
still  suffering  from  its  effects  it  is  in  the  minds  of  the 
present  'generation  more  closely  associated  with  Jack- 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO    287 

son's  name  than  all  his  good  work.  The  abominable 
slough  of  debauchery  in  which  our  civil  service  has 
wallowed  for  half  a  century  is  not  only  a  disgrace  to 
the  American  people,  but  it  is  probably  the  most 
serious  of  all  the  dangers  that  threaten  the  continu 
ance  of  American  freedom.  Its  foul  but  subtle  miasma 
poisons  and  benumbs  the  whole  body  politic.  The 
virus  runs  through  everything,  and  helps  to  sustain  all 
manner  of  abominations,  from  grasping  monopolies 
and  civic  jobbery  down  to  political  rum-shops.  And 
for  a  crowning  evil,  so  long  as  it  stays  with  us,  it  is 
next  to  impossible  to  get  great  political  questions  cor 
rectly  stated  and  argued  on  their  merits. 

Under  all  the  administrations  previous  to  Jackson's 
our  civil  service  had  been  conducted  with  ability  and 
purity,  and  might  have  been  compared  favourably  with 
that  of  any  other  country  in  the  world.  The  earlier 
Presidents  proceeded  upon  the  theory  that  public  office 
is  a  public  trust,  and  cannot,  without  base  dishonour, 
be  treated  as  a  reward  for  partisan  services.  They 
conducted  the  business  of  government  upon  sound 
business  principles,  and  as  long  as  a  postmaster  showed 
himself  efficient  in  distributing  the  mail,  they  did  not 
turn  him  out  because  of  his  vote.  From  the  first, 
however,  there  were  well-meaning  people  who  could 
not  comprehend  the  wisdom  of  such  a  policy.  When 
Jefferson's  election  brought  with  it  a  change  of  party 
at  the  seat  of  government,  there  were  some  who 
thought  it  should  also  bring  with  it  a  wholesale  change 
of  office-holders.  But  such  was  not  Jefferson's  view 
of  the  case.  The  name  of  "  Jeffersonian  Democrat," 
as  applied  to  a  certain  class  of  hungry  place-hunters  in 
our  time,  is  an  atrocious  libel  upon  that  great  man. 


288  ANDREW   JACKSON 

Such  people  would  have  gone  hungry  a  great  while 
before  he  would  have  fed  them  from  the  public  crib. 
It  was  strongly  urged  upon  him  once  that  he  should 
make   room   in  the  custom-house  for  some    persons, 
who,  as  it  was  alleged,  in  helping  to  elect  him  Presi 
dent,  had  virtually  saved  the  country.     "  Indeed,"  re 
plied  Jefferson,  "  I  have  heard  that  the  city  of  Rome 
was  once  saved  by  geese  ;  but  I  never  heard  that  these 
geese  were  made  revenue  officers."     During  the  forty 
years  between  April  30,  1789,  and  March  4,  1829,  the 
total  number  of  removals  from  office  was  seventy-four, 
and  out  of  this  number  five  were  defaulters.     During 
the  first  year  of  Jackson's  administration  the  number  of 
changes  made  in  the  civil  service  was  about  two  thou 
sand.     Such  was  the  sudden  and  abrupt  inauguration 
upon  a  national  scale  of  the  so-called  "spoils  system." 
The  phrase  originated  with  W.  L.  Marcy,  of  New  York, 
who  in  a  speech  in  the  Senate  in   1831   declared  that 
"  to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils."     The  man  who  said 
this  of  course  did  not  realize  that  he  was  making  one  of 
the  most  infamous  remarks  recorded  in  history.    There 
was,  however,  much  aptness  in  his  phrase,  inasmuch  as 
it  was  a  confession  that  the  business  of  American  pol 
itics  was  about  to  be  conducted  upon  principles  fit 
only  for  the  warfare  of  barbarians.     The  senator  from 
New  York  had  been  reared  in  a  poisonous  atmosphere. 
The  "spoils  system"  was  first  gradually  brought  to 
perfection  in  the  state  politics  of  New  York  and  Penn 
sylvania,  and  it  was  inevitable  that  it  should  sooner  or 
later  be  introduced  into  the  sphere  of  national  politics. 
There  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that  if  Jackson  had  never 
been  President,  similar  results  would  have  followed  at 
about  the  same  time.     If  Adams  had  been  reflected,  the 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO    289 

catastrophe  would  have  been  deferred  for  four  years, 
but  it  was  bound  to  come  soon.  This  in  no  wise 
alters  or  qualifies  Jackson's  responsibility  for  the  mis 
chief,  but  it  helps  us  to  comprehend  it  in  its  true  rela 
tions.  At  that  time  the  notion  had  firmly  planted 
itself  in  men's  minds  that  there  is  something  especially 
democratic,  and  therefore-  meritorious,  about  "  rotation 
in  office."  It  was  argued,  with  that  looseness  of  anal 
ogy  so  common  in  men's  reasonings  about  history  and 
politics,  that  permanency  of  tenure  tends  to  create  an 
"  aristocracy  of  office,"  and  is  therefore  contrary  to  the 
"  spirit  of  American  institutions."  It  was,  as  I  said 
before,  an  age  of  crude,  unintelligent  experiments  in 
democracy;  and  as  soon  as  this  notion  had  once  got 
into  men's  heads,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  experiment 
of  the  "  spoils  system  "  must  be  tried,  just  as  the  exper 
iment  of  an  elective  judiciary  had  to  be  tried.  The 
way  was  prepared  in  1820  by  Crawford,  when  he  suc 
ceeded  in  getting  the  law  enacted  that  limits  the 
tenure  of  office  to  four  years.  This  dangerous  meas 
ure  excited  very  little  discussion  at  the  time.  People 
could  not  understand  the  evil  until  taught  by  hard  ex 
perience.  The  honest  Jackson  would  have  been 
astonished  if  he  had  been  told  that  he  was  laying  the 
foundations  of  a  gigantic  system  of  corruption.  He 
was  very  ready  to  believe  ill  of  political  opponents, 
and  to  make  generalizations  from  extremely  inadequate 
data.  Democratic  newspapers,  while  the  campaign 
frenzy  was  on  them,  were  full  of  windy  declamation 
about  the  wholesale  corruption  introduced  into  all 
parts  of  the  government  by  Adams  and  Clay.  In 
point  of  fact  there  has  never  been  a  cleaner  adminis 
tration  in  all  our  history  than  that  of  Quincy  Adams, 


290  ANDREW  JACKSON 

but  nothing  was  too  bad  for  Jackson  to  believe  of 
these  two  men.  It  was  quite  like  him  to  take  all  the 
campaign  lies  about  them  as  literally  true ;  and  when 
Tobias  Watkins,  the  fourth  auditor  of  the  treasury, 
was  found  to  be  delinquent  in  his  accounts,  it  was  easy 
to  suppose  that  many  others  were,  in  one  way  or 
another,  just  as  bad.  In  his  wholesale  removals, 
Jackson  doubtless  supposed  he  was  doing  the  country 
a  service  by  "turning  the  rascals  out."  The  imme 
diate  consequence  of  this  demoralizing  policy  was  a 
struggle  for  control  of  the  patronage  between  Calhoun 
and  Van  Buren,  who  were  rival  aspirants  for  the  suc 
cession  to  the  presidency. 

A  curious  affair  now  came  in  to  influence  Jackson's 
personal  relations  to  these  men.  Early  in  1829,  John 
Eaton,  Secretary  of  War,  married  a  Mrs.  Timberlake, 
with  whose  reputation  gossip  had  been  busy.  It  would 
seem  that  this  ill  repute  was  deserved,  but  Jackson 
was  always  slow  to  believe  charges  against  a  woman. 
His  own  wife,  who  had  been  outrageously  maligned  by 
the  Whig  newspapers  during  the  campaign,  had  lately 
died.  My  venerable  friend,  Colonel  Edward  Butler,  of 
St.  Louis,  the  oldest  living  graduate  of  West  Point, 
was  Jackson's  ward,  and  more  familiar  with  his  private 
life  for  forty  years  than  any  other  man.  He  cherishes 
Jackson's  memory  with  a  feeling  akin  to  idolatry,  and 
I  only  wish  I  could  begin  to  remember  all  the  interest 
ing  things  he  has  told  me  about  him.  They  tried  to 
keep  newspaper  lies  from  coming  to  Mrs.  Jackson's 
ears,  but  of  course  in  vain.  Many  a  time  Colonel 
Butler,  coming  suddenly  into  the  room,  would  find  the 
poor  old  lady  sitting  absorbed  in  grief,  with  her  great 
quarto  -Bible  in  her  lap  and  tears  stealing  down  her 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO    291 

cheeks.  She  was  one  of  the  best  women  that  ever 
lived,  says  Colonel  Butler,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  she  died  of  a  broken  heart.  Whig  editors  had 
killed  her  as  much  as  if  they  had  taken  guns  and  shot 
her.  Soon  after  her  death  Mrs.  Eaton  came  one  day 
to  the  President,  and  throwing  herself  at  his  feet,  told 
him  with  many  sobs  and  tears  how  she  was  ill  used  and 
persecuted.  Could  nothing  be  done,  she  implored,  to 
mend  matters  ?  Jackson  was  haggard  with  grief,  and 
fiercely  vindictive.  He  knew  that  his  wife  had  been 
wickedly  slandered ;  he  took  it  for  granted  that  the 
case  must  be  the  same  with  Mrs.  Eaton.  In  this  he 
was  doubtless  mistaken,  but  his  letters  on  the  subject 
are  written  in  a  noble  temper  and  fully  reveal  the 
spirit  which  made  him  take  Mrs.  Eaton's  part  with 
more  than  his  customary  vehemence.  Mrs.  Calhoun 
and  the  wives  of  the  secretaries  would  not  recognize 
Mrs.  Eaton.  Mrs.  Donelson,  wife  of  the  President's 
nephew,  and  now  mistress  of  ceremonies  at  the  White 
House,  took  a  similar  stand.  Jackson  scolded  his 
secretaries  and  sent  Mrs.  Donelson  home  to  Tennessee, 
but  all  in  vain.  He  found  that  vanquishing  Welling 
ton's  veterans  was  a  light  task  compared  with  that  of 
contending  against  the  ladies  in  an  affair  of  this  sort. 
Foremost  among  those  who  frowned  Mrs.  Eaton  out 
of  society  was  Mrs.  Calhoun.  On  the  other  hand, 
Van  Buren,  a  widower,  found  himself  able  to  be  some 
what  more  complaisant,  and  accordingly  rose  in  Jack 
son's  esteem.  The  fires  were  fanned  by  Lewis  and 
Kendall,  who  saw  in  Van  Buren  a  more  eligible  ally 
than  Calhoun.  Presently  intelligence  was  obtained 
from  Crawford,  who  hated  Calhoun,  to  the  effect  that 
the  latter,  as  member  of  Monroe's  cabinet,  had  disap- 


2Q2  ANDREW   JACKSON 

proved  of  Jackson's  conduct  in  Florida.  This  was 
quite  true,  but  Calhoun  had  discreetly  yielded  his 
judgment  to  that  of  the  cabinet,  led  by  Adams,  and 
thus  had  officially  sanctioned  Jackson's  conduct. 
These  facts,  as  handled  by  Eaton  and  Lewis,  led  Jack 
son  to  suspect  Calhoun  of  treacherous  double-dealing, 
and  the  result  was  a  quarrel  which  broke  up  the 
cabinet.  In  order  to  get  Calhoun's  friends,  Ingham, 
Branch,  and  Berrien,  out  of  the  cabinet,  the  other 
secretaries  began  by  resigning.  This  device  did  not 
succeed,  and  the  ousting  of  the  three  secretaries  en 
tailed  further  quarrelling,  in  the  course  of  which  the 
Eaton  affair  and  the  Florida  business  were  beaten 
threadbare  in  the  newspapers  and  evoked  sundry 
challenges  to  deadly  combat.1  In  the  spring  and 

1  MRS.  LEE  TO  COLONEL  GANTT 

[Apropos  of  General  Jackson's  relations  with  Mrs.  Eaton  and  Mr.  Calhoun.  The 
original  letter  from  which  these  extracts  are  taken  is  dated  Silver  Spring,  May  23, 
1889,  and  is  preserved  among  Dr.  Fiske's  papers.] 

"...  I  shall  relate  chiefly  what  I  heard  when  General  Jackson  visited 
my  Parents  or  when  his  guest.  I  was  eleven  years  old  when  I  first  met 
him,  and  twenty-three  at  our  last  parting.  When  my  Parents  removed 
from  Kentucky  to  Washington  my  brothers  did  not  accompany  us,  conse 
quently  I  was  more  than  ever  their  constant  companion,  being  their  only 
daughter,  and  Mother  my  teacher.  .  .  .  The  first  time  I  ever  heard  Mrs. 
Eaton's  name  mentioned  was  in  a  conversation  between  Mother  and  the 
President,  where  he  spoke  of  the  annoyance  given  him  by  Mrs.  Donelson's 
refusal  to  be  civil  to  Mrs.  Eaton  when  she  called  at  the  White  House;  he 
thought  Mrs.  Eaton,  as  the  wife  of  his  friend  and  a  member  of  the  Cabinet, 
ought  to  be  politely  received,  but  '  Emily '  is  influenced  by  her  husband 
who  is  under  '  Calhoun's  thraldom.'  This  was  the  purport  of  his  complaint, 
and  out  of  this  domestic  disagreement  arose  the  gossip  which  was  well 
known  to  have  been  kept  up  by  Mrs.  Eaton,  who  enjoyed  notoriety  even  at 
the  expense  of  her  own  reputation  and  of  the  truth.  .  .  .  Soon  after 
Major  and  Mrs.  Donelson  went  to  Tennessee  for  a  short  time.  I  after 
wards  heard  from  my  Parents  that  they  repented  of  their  position,  and  Mrs. 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO    293 

summer  of  1831,  the  new  cabinet  was  formed,  consist 
ing  of  Edward  Livingston,  Secretary  of  State ;  Louis 

Eaton  was  received  as  a  visitor,  but  to  my  positive  conviction  never  to  stay 
even  for  a  day.  .  .  .  Nothing  strikes  me  more  in  reviewing  the  past  than 
the  liberties  taken  with  the  General  by  those  who  formed  his  family  circle, 
and  the  gentleness  with  which  he  submitted  to  impositions,  especially  of 
servants  and  children.  But  if  it  touched  a  point  of  duty  he  was  firm, 
though  always  amiable  and  kind.  ...  I  was  frequently  at  the  White 
House  in  childhood  and  as  a  young  lady.  ...  I  never  met  Mrs.  Eaton 
there.  When  she  went  she  did  so  as  any  other  acquaintance,  and  from 
what  I  have  heard  was  received  with  but  scant  courtesy  by  Mrs.  Donelson. 
.  .  .  The  White  House  has  never  since  been  graced  with  a  more  beautiful, 
refined,  gentle  woman  [Mrs.  D.], —  except  perhaps  she  may  have  been 
excelled  by  Mrs.  Cleveland,  who  had  greater  modern  educational  advan 
tages  and  the  rare  gift  of  tact.  ...  I  heard  General  Jackson  comment  but 
once  on  Mrs.  Eaton  .  .  .  during  my  visit  to  the  Hermitage  in  1842.  ... 
"  Mrs.  Eaton's  daughter,  Virginia  Timberlake,  was  my  school-mate  at 
Mme.  Sigoigne's ;  she  was  a  brilliant  woman  in  mind,  appearance,  and 
accomplishments,  who  in  spite  of  her  want  of  veracity  attracted  me  very 
much,  but  my  mother  forbade  any  intimacy  as  she  did  not  approve  of  Miss 
Timberlake  or  visit  Mrs.  Eaton.  But  Virginia  was  so  amusing  that  I  fear 
I  would  have  been  very  disobedient  but  for  my  dear  friend  and  monitor, 
Isabella  Cass,  who  had  the  same  instructions  from  home,  for  I  know  that 
neither  the  Cass  nor  the  Woodbury  families,  with  whom  I  have  had  a  life 
long  intimacy,  visited  Mrs.  Eaton,  though  Judge  Woodbury  and  Governor 
Cass  were  members  of  the  Jackson  Cabinet.  After  we  left  school,  by  hard 
begging,  I  sometimes  got  permission  to  go  to  see  Virginia,  which  calls  she 
never  returned.  Still  when  in  trouble  she  would  write  for  me  to  come  to 
her.  At  that  time,  she  was  engaged  to  be  married  to  Barton  Key,  to  which 
both  families  objected  bitterly.  Mrs.  Eaton's  treatment  of  her  daughter 
amounted  to  cruelty.  Virginia  escaped  from  some  of  it  by  deceiving  her 
mother.  I  told  the  General  of  this  episode.  ...  He  had  always  felt  sorry 
for  i  The  Timberlake  children,'  knowing  that  their  « Mother's  lack  of  truth 
would  be  fatal  to  them.'  He  had  known  their  grandparents,  the  O'Neils, 
when  he  was  Senator  from  Tennessee  and  Mrs.  O'Neil  had  been  very  kind 
to  his  wife,  Mrs.  Jackson,  when  ill ;  and  General  Jackson,  when  consulted 
by  his  '  friend  Eaton '  about  his  marriage,  advised  him  to  marry  'the  Widow 
Timberlake'  and  promised  to  stand  by  him.  ...  I  am  convinced,  and 
with  much  reason,  that  Mme.  Sampayo,  alias  Virginia  Timberlake,  has 
inspired  these  French  romances  about  her  mother  and  General  Jackson : 
she  disliked  and  spoke  bitterly  of  both,  and  several  times  in  the  past  thirty 
years,  I  have  seen  and  heard  of  ...  different  articles  on  this  subject  in 
Paris  paper.  She  always  changes  her  history  and  gets  coarser  as  she  grows 


294  ANDREW  JACKSON 

McLane,  Treasury  ;  Lewis  Cass,  War;  Levi  Woodbury, 
Navy;  R.  B.  Taney,  Attorney-general;  in  post-office, 

older.  I  suppose  she  may  need  money,  or  craves  notoriety  which  it  may 
bring  her.  .  .  . 

"  When  my  Parents  bought  their  home  opposite  the  War  Department  it 
needed  extensive  repairs,  and  we  went  to  live  there  before  it  was  free  from 
the  smell  of  paint.  The  President  when  he  called  insisted  that  I  stay  at 
the  White  House  (as  the  paint  made  me  ill)  until  the  odour  was  gone.  I 
went,  and  it  was  quite  six  weeks  before  he  and  I  thought  it  safe  for  me  to 
return  home.  I  never  had  a  happier  visit.  He  did  smoke  his  pipe  after 
dinner,  and  I  have  filled  his  fresh,  clean  clay  pipes,  with  long  cane  stems, 
many  times  for  him ;  but  he  rarely  used  a  pipe  more  than  one  day,  and 
there  was  a  bundle  of  canes  brought  along  with  the  new  pipes.  ...  I 
thus  became  informed  about  some  very  important  matters.  The  removal 
of  the  Government  funds  from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  which  was 
then  in  progress  was  one  of  them.  The  President  sent  several  friends  to 
New  York  to  obtain  reliable  information  from  commercial  monied  men 
about  banks  or  institutions  to  which  it  might  be  safe  to  transfer  the 
Government  Deposits.  Mr.  Kendall,  from  his  letter,  must  have  been  one 
of  them,  and  wrote  in  the  most  discouraging  tone,  to  which  the  President 
replied ;  and  I  either  copied  his  letter  or  he  dictated  it,  for  I  remember  dis 
tinctly  that  he  warned  Mr.  Kendall  not  to  be  misled  by  the  emissaries  of 
Nicholas  Biddle  ('who  is  now  a  desperate  man')  and  'who  is  nagging  the 
footsteps  of  every  prominent  official,'  because  nothing  but  the  Public 
Deposit  concealed  the  fact  that  Biddle's  Bank  was  at  that  moment  *  bank 
rupt.'  That  was  the  year  your  class  graduated  at  West  Point.  .  .  . 

"  Blair  mentioned  to  me  that  Mr.  Fiske  does  not  believe  that  General 
Jackson  threatened  to  hang  Mr.  Calhoun.  I  think  he  is  mistaken.  .  .  . 
I  am  certain  that  the  main  import  of  the  story  was  (as  I  heard  it)  true,— 
which  was,  upon  the  first  <  overt  act '  at  Charleston,  he  would  have  Mr. 
Calhoun  and  the  other  leading  Conspirators  arrested  and  tried  for  treason, 
of  which  they  would  undoubtedly  be  found  guilty,  when  he  would  hang 
every  one  of  them.  I  heard  Mr.  Crittenden  and  Father  talk  about  this 
matter ;  both  laughed  very  heartily  at  the  way  in  which  Governor  Letcher 
described  the  effect  on  Mr.  Calhoun  of  this  threat,  when  Governor  Letcher 
reported  to  him  the  conversation  with  General  Jackson  in  which  the  threat 
was  made,  Governor  Letcher  saying  to  Mr.  Calhoun  that  he  came  directly 
from  the  White  House  to  inform  him  of  his  peril.  In  1842,  when  at  the 
Hermitage,  General  Jackson  expressed  his  opinion  to  me  very  freely  of  Mr. 
Calhoun,  whose  intellect  he  said  was  of  the  highest  order,  but  he  knew  him 
to  be  heartless,  selfish,  and  a  physical  coward.  Mr.  Clay  was  his  personal 
enemy  and  had  done  him  wrongs  Mr.  Calhoun  dared  not  do,  but  Mr.  Clay 
was  a  brave  man.  and  a  patriot,  who  loved,  and  would  have  gladly  given 
his  life  to  serve  his  country." 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO    295 

no  change.  On  Van  Buren's  resignation,  Jackson  at 
once  appointed  him  minister  to  England,  but  there 
was  a  warm  dispute  in  the  Senate  over  his  confirmation, 
and  it  was  defeated  at  length  by  the  casting  vote  of 
Calhoun.  This  check  only  strengthened  Jackson's 
determination  to  have  Van  Buren  for  his  successor  in 
the  presidency.  The  progress  of  this  quarrel  entailed 
a  break  in  the  "  kitchen  cabinet,"  in  which  Duff 
Green,  editor  of  the  Telegraph  and  friend  of  Calhoun, 
was  thrown  out.  His  place  was  taken  by  Francis 
Preston  Blair  of  Kentucky,  a  man  of  eminent  ability 
and  earnest  patriotism.  To  him  and  his  sons,  as 
energetic  opponents  of  nullification  and  secession, 
our  country  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  which  can 
hardly  be  overstated.  Blair's  indignant  attitude 
toward  nullification  brought  him  at  once  into  ear 
nest  sympathy  with  Jackson.  In  December,  1830, 
Blair  began  publishing  the  Globe,  the  organ  hence 
forth  of  Jackson's  party.  For  a  period  of  ten  years, 
until  the  defeat  of  the  Democrats  in  1840,  Blair 
and  Kendall  were  the  ruling  spirits  in  the  adminis 
tration.  Their  policy  was  to  reelect  Jackson  to  the 
presidency  in  1832,  and  make  Van  Buren  his  suc 
cessor  in  1836. 

During  Jackson's  administration  there  came  about 
a  new  division  of  parties.  The  strict  constructionists, 
opposing  internal  improvements,  protective  tariff,  and 
national  bank,  retained  the  name  of  Democrats,  which 
had  long  been  applied  to  members  of  the  old  Republi 
can  party.  The  term  Republican  fell  into  disuse.  The 
loose  constructionists,  under  the  lead  of  Clay,  took  the 
name  of  Whigs,  as  it  suited  their  purposes  to  describe 
Jackson  as  a  kind  of  tyrant ;  and  they  tried  to  dis- 


296  ANDREW   JACKSON 

credit  their  antagonists  by  calling  them  Tories,  but 
the  device  found  little  favour.  On  strict  construc- 
tionist  grounds  Jackson  in  1829  vetoed  the  bill  for  a 
government  subscription  to  the  stock  of  the  Mays- 
ville  turnpike  in  Kentucky;  and  two  other  similar 
bills  he  disposed  of  by  a  new  method  which  the 
Whigs  indignantly  dubbed  a  "pocket  veto."  The 
struggle  over  the  tariff  was  especially  important  as 
bringing  out  a  clear  expression  of  the  doctrine  of  nul 
lification  on  the  part  of  South  Carolina.  Practically, 
however,  nullification  was  first  attempted  by  Georgia 
in  the  case  of  the  disputes  with  the  Cherokee  Indians. 
Under  treaties  with  the  federal  government  these 
Indians  occupied  lands  which  were  coveted  by  the 
white  people.  Adams  had  made  himself  very  unpopu 
lar  in  Georgia  by  resolutely  defending  the  treaty 
rights  of  these  Indians.  Immediately  upon  Jackson's 
election  the  state  government  assumed  jurisdiction 
over  their  lands,  and  proceeded  to  legislate  for  them, 
passing  laws  that  discriminated  against  them.  Dis 
putes  at  once  arose,  in  the  course  of  which  Georgia 
twice  refused  to  obey  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  At  the  request  of  the  governor  of  Georgia, 
Jackson  withdrew  the  federal  troops  from  the  Cherokee 
country  and  refused  to  enforce  the  rights  which  had 
been  guaranteed  to  the  Indians  by  the  United  States. 
His  feelings  toward  Indians  were  those  of  a  frontier 
fighter,  and  he  asked,  with  telling  force,  whether  an 
Eastern  state,  such  as  New  York,  would  endure  the 
nuisance  of  an  independent  Indian  state  within  her 
own  boundaries.  In  his  sympathy  with  the  people  of 
Georgia  on  the  particular  question  at  issue,  he  seemed 
for  the  moment  to  be  conniving  at  the  dangerous  prin- 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO   297 

ciple  of  nullification.  These  events  were  carefully 
noted  by  the  politicians  of  South  Carolina.  The  pro 
tectionist  policy  which  since  the  peace  of  1815  had 
been  growing  in  favour  at  the  North  had  culminated 
in  1828  in  the  so-called  "tariff  of  abominations." 
This  tariff,  the  result  of  a  wild,  helter-skelter  scramble 
of  rival  interests,  deserved  its  name  on  many  accounts. 
It '  discriminated,  with  especial  unfairness,  against  the 
Southern  people,  who  were  very  naturally  and  properly 
enraged  by  it.  A  new  tariff,  passed  in  1832,  modified 
some  of  the  most  objectionable  features  of  the  old  one, 
but  still  failed  of  justice  to  the  Southerners.  Jackson 
was  opposed  to  the  principle  of  protective  tariffs,  and 
from  his  course  with  Georgia  it  might  be  argued  that  he 
would  not  interfere  with  extreme  measures  on  the  part 
of  the  South.  During  the  whole  of  Jackson's  first  term 
there  was  more  or  less  vague  talk  about  nullification. 
The  subject  had  a  way  of  obtruding  itself  upon  all  sorts 
of  discussions,  as  in  the  famous  debates  on  Foote's  reso 
lutions  which  lasted  over  five  months  in  1830  and  called 
forth  Webster's  wonderful  speech  in  reply  to  Hayne. 
A  few  weeks  after  this  speech,  at  a  public  dinner  in 
commemoration  of  Jefferson's  birthday,  after  sundry 
regular  toasts  had  seemed  to  indicate  a  drift  of  senti 
ment  in  approval  of  nullification,  Jackson  suddenly 
arose  with  a  volunteer  toast,  "  Our  Federal  Union :  it 
must  be  preserved."  It  was  like  a  bombshell.  Cal- 
houn  was  prompt  to  reply  with  a  toast  and  speech  in 
behalf  of  "  Liberty,  dearer  than  the  Union,"  but  the 
nullifiers  were  bitterly  disappointed  and  chagrined. 
In  spite  of  this  warning,  South  Carolina  held  a  con 
vention  November  19,  1832,  and  declared  the  tariffs 
of  1828  and  1832  to  be  null  and  void  in  South  Caro- 


298  ANDREW  JACKSON 

lina ;  all  state  officers  and  jurors  were  required  to  take 
an  oath  of  obedience  to  this  edict;  appeals  to  the 
federal  Supreme  Court  were  prohibited  under  penal 
ties;  and  the  federal  government  was  warned  that 
an  attempt  on  its  part  to  enforce  the  revenue  laws 
would  immediately  provoke  South  Carolina  to  secede 
from  the  Union.  The  ordinance  of  nullification 
was  to  take  effect  on  the  ist  of  February,  1833,  and 
preparations  for  war  were  begun  at  once.  On  the 
1 6th  December  the  President  issued  a  proclamation 
in  which  he  declared  that  he  should  enforce  the  laws 
in  spite  of  any  and  all  resistance  that  might  be 
made ;  and  he  showed  that  he  was  in  earnest  by 
forthwith  sending  Lieutenant  David  Farragut  with 
a  naval  force  to  Charleston  harbour  and  ordering 
General  Scott  to  have  troops  ready  to  enter  South 
Carolina  if  necessary.  In  the  proclamation,  which 
was  written  by  Livingston,  the  President  thus  de 
fined  his  position : l  "  I  consider  the  power  to  annul 
a  law  of  the  United  States,  assumed  by  one  state, 
incompatible  with  the  existence  of  the  Union,  con 
tradicted  expressly  by  the  letter  of  the  Constitution, 
unauthorized  by  its  spirit,  inconsistent  with  every 
principle  on  which  it  was  founded,  and  destructive  of 
the  great  object  for  which  it  was  formed."  Governor 
Hayne  of  South  Carolina  issued  a  counter-proclama 
tion,  and  a  few  days  afterward  Calhoun  resigned  the 
vice-presidency  and  was  chosen  to  succeed  Hayne  in 
the  senate.  Jackson's  resolute  attitude  was  approved 

1Mrs.  Elizabeth  B.  Lee  in  her  letter  to  Colonel  Gantt,  quoted  on 
pages  292-294,  wrote,  "  My  Father  said  to  me  that  the  Nullification  Procla 
mation  as  first  drafted  by  General  Jackson  was  a  far  more  able  paper 
than  the  polished  substitute  based  on  it  and  written  by  Mr.  Livingston 
and  adopted  by  the  President." 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO   299 

by  public  opinion  throughout  the  country.  By  the 
Southern  people  generally  the  action  of  South  Caro 
lina  was  regarded  as  precipitate  and  unconstitutional. 
Even  in  that  state  a  Union  convention  met  at  Colum 
bia  and  announced  its  intention  of  supporting  the 
President.  In  January  Calhoun  declared  in  the  Sen 
ate  that  his  state  was  not  hostile  to  the  Union  and  had 
not  meditated  an  armed  resistance ;  a  "  peaceable  se 
cession,"  to  be  accomplished  by  threats,  was  probably 
the  ultimatum  really  contemplated.  In  spite  of  Jack 
son's  warning,  the  nullifiers  were  surprised  by  his 
unflinching  attitude,  and  complained  of  it  as  inconsist 
ent  with  his  treatment  of  Georgia.  When  the  first  of 
February  came  the  nullifiers  deferred  action.  In  the 
course  of  that  month  a  bill  for  enforcing  the  tariff 
passed  both  houses  of  Congress,  and  at  the  same  time 
Clay's  compromise  tariff  was  adopted,  providing  for  the 
gradual  reduction  of  the  duties  until  1842,  after  which 
all  duties  were  to  be  kept  at  twenty  per  cent.  This 
compromise  was  well-meant  but  pernicious,  for  it  en 
abled  the  nullifiers  to  claim  a  victory  and  retreat  from 
their  position  with  colours  flying.  Calhoun,  indeed, 
afterward  pointed  to  the  issue  of  the  contest  as  con 
clusively  proving  the  beneficent  character  of  his  theory 
of  nullification.  Here,  he  said,  by  merely  threatening 
to  nullify  an  obnoxious,  and  as  he  maintained  uncon 
stitutional,  act  of  federal  legislation,  South  Carolina 
had  secured  its  repeal,  and  all  was  pleasant  and  peace 
ful  !  It  was  not  Jackson,  however,  but  Clay,  that  Cal 
houn  had  to  thank  for  the  compromise,  nor  were  the 
nullifiers  by  any  means  as  well  satisfied  as  he  tried  to 
believe. 

The  nullifiers,  indeed,  had  made  a  great  mistake 


300  ANDREW  JACKSON 

when  they  inferred  from  Jackson's  attitude  toward 
Georgia  that  they  could  count  upon  his  aid  or  conni 
vance  in  the  case  of  South  Carolina.  The  insubordi 
nation  of  Georgia  was  shown  in  refusing  to  obey  a 
decree  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  Jackson  had  no 
fondness  for  the  Supreme  Court.  He  is  said  to  have 
•exclaimed,  somewhat  maliciously,  "John  Marshall  has 
made  his  decision ;  now  let  him  enforce  it !  "  But  the 
nullification  act  of  South  Carolina  was  a  direct  chal 
lenge  to  the  executive  head  of  the  United  States  gov 
ernment.  He  could  see  its  bearings  in  an  instant, 
and  it  aroused  all  the  combativeness  that  was  in  his 
nature. 

During  this  nullification  controversy  Jackson  kept 
up  the  attacks  upon  the  United  States  Bank  which  he 
had  begun  in  his  first  annual  message  to  Congress  in 
1829.  His  antipathy  to  such  a  bank,  in  which  the 
federal  government  was  a  shareholder  and  virtually  to 
some  extent  a  director,  had  been  shown  as  long  ago 
as  Washington's  administration,  when  the  bank  was 
first  established.  For  two  reasons  it  was  especially 
obnoxious  to  the  people  of  the  South  and  the  South 
west,  and  to  the  Democratic  party  generally.  In  the 
first  place,  the  question  as  to  the  constitutional  author 
ity  of  Congress  to  establish  such  an  institution  was 
preeminently  the  test  question  between  strict  con- 
structionists  and  loose  constructionists.  In  the  great 
fight  between  them  it  played  the  same  part  that  Little 
Round  Top  played  in  the  battle  of  Gettysburg.  Once 
let  the  enemy  carry  that  point  and  the  whole  field  was 
lost.  The  contest  over  the  assumption  of  state  debts 
had  faded  out  of  sight  before  Jackson's  presidency ;  it 
had  become  what  the  Germans  call  an  "  iiberwundene 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO   301 

standpunkt?  The  contest  over  protective  tariffs,  on 
the  other  hand,  had  only  lately  become  severe.  But 
there  the  bank  had  been  standing  for  nearly  forty 
years,  a  perpetual  menace  to  the  theory  of  strict  con 
struction.  President  Madison  had  reluctantly  signed 
the  bill  for  its  recharter  in  1816,  apparently  because 
he  could  think  of  no  practical  alternative.  The  new 
charter  was  to  expire  in  1836,  and  President  Jackson, 
in  his  determination  that  it  should  not  again  be  re 
newed,  was  restrained  by  no  such  practical  considera 
tions. 

In  the  second  place,  the  bank  was  hated  as  the  most 
prominent  visible  symbol  of  Hamilton's  plan  for  an 
alliance  between  the  federal  government  and  the  mon 
eyed  classes  of  society.  In  this  feeling  there  was  no 
doubt  something  of  the  sheer  prejudice  which  ignorant 
people  are  apt  to  entertain  against  capitalists  and  cor 
porations.  But  the  feeling  was  in  the  main  whole 
some.  There  was  really  very  good  reason  for  fearing 
that  a  great  financial  institution,  so  intimately  related 
to  the  government,  might  be  made  a  most  formidable 
engine  of  political  corruption.  The  final  result  of  the 
struggle,  in  Tyler's  presidency,  showed  that  Jackson 
was  supported  by  the  sound  common  sense  of  the 
American  people. 

Jackson's  suggestions  with  reference  to  the  bank 
in  his  first  message  met  with  little  favour,  especially  as 
he  coupled  them  with  suggestions  for  the  distribution 
of  the  surplus  revenue  among  the  states.  He  returned 
to  the  attack  in  his  two  following  messages,  until,  in 
1832,  the  bank  felt  obliged  in  self-defence  to  apply, 
somewhat  prematurely,  for  a  renewal  of  its  charter  on 
the  expiration  of  its  term.  Charges  brought  against 


302  ANDREW   JACKSON 

the  bank  by  Democratic  representatives  were  investi 
gated  by  a  committee,  which  returned  a  majority  report 
in  favour  of  the  bank.  A  minority  report  sustained 
the  charges.  After  prolonged  discussion  the  bill  to 
renew  the  charter  passed  both  houses  and  July  10, 
1832,  was  vetoed  by  the  President.  An  attempt  to 
pass  the  bill  over  the  veto  failed  of  the  requisite  two- 
thirds  majority. 

Circumstances  had  already  given  a  flavour  of  per 
sonal  contest  to  Jackson's  assaults  upon  the  bank. 
There  was  no  man  whom  he  hated  so  fiercely  as  Clay, 
who  was  at  the  same  time  his  chief  political  rival. 
Clay  made  the  mistake  of  forcing  the  bank  question 
into  the  foreground,  in  the  belief  that  it  was  an  issue 
upon  which  he  was  likely  to  win  in  the  coming  presi 
dential  campaign.  Clay's  movement  was  an  invitation 
to  the  people  to  defeat  Jackson  in  order  to  save  the 
bank ;  and  this  naturally  aroused  all  the  combative- 
ness  in  Jackson's  nature.  His  determined  stand  im 
pressed  upon  the  popular  imagination  the  picture  of  a 
dauntless  "  tribune  of  the  people  "  fighting  against  the 
"monster  monopoly."  Clay  unwisely  attacked  the 
veto  power  of  the  President,  and  thus  gave  Benton  an 
opportunity  to  defend  it  by  analogies  drawn  from  the 
veto  power  of  the  ancient  Roman  tribune,  which  in 
point  of  fact  it  does  not  at  all  resemble.  The  discus 
sion  helped  Jackson  more  than  Clay.  It  was  also  a 
mistake  on  the  part  of  the  Whig  leader  to  risk  the 
permanence  of  such  an  institution  as  the  United 
States  Bank  upon  the  fortunes  of  a  presidential  cam 
paign.  It  dragged  the  bank  into  politics  in  spite  of 
itself,  and  by  thus  affording  justification  for  the  fears 
to  which  Jackson  had  appealed,  played  directly  into 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO    303 

his  hands.  In  this  campaign  all  the  candidates  were 
for  the  first  time  nominated  in  national  conventions. 
There  were  three  conventions,  all  held  at  Baltimore. 
In  September,  1831,  the  anti-masons  nominated  Will 
iam  Wirt  of  Virginia,  in  the  hope  of  getting  the 
National  Republicans  or  Whigs  to  unite  with  them, 
but  the  latter,  in  December,  nominated  Clay.  In  the 
following  March  the  Democrats  nominated  Jackson, 
with  Van  Buren  for  Vice-president.  During  the 
year  1832  the  action  of  Congress  and  President,  with 
regard  to  the  bank  charter,  was  virtually  a  part  of  the 
campaign.  In  the  election  South  Carolina  voted  for 
candidates  of  her  own,  John  Floyd  of  Virginia  and 
Henry  Lee  of  Massachusetts.  There  were  219  elec 
toral  votes  for  Jackson,  49  for  Clay,  1 1  for  Floyd,  and 
7  for  Wirt.  Besides  his  own  state,  Clay  carried  Mary 
land  and  Delaware,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and 
Massachusetts.  All  the  rest  of  the  country,  including 
half  of  New  England,  went  for  Jackson.  He  inter 
preted  this  overwhelming  victory  as  a  popular  con 
demnation  of  the  bank  and  approval  of  all  his  actions 
as  President.  The  enthusiastic  applause  from  all 
quarters  which  now  greeted  his  rebuke  of  the  nulli- 
fiers  served  still  further  to  strengthen  his  belief  in 
himself  as  a  "  saviour  of  society "  and  champion  of 
"  the  people."  Men  were  getting  into  a  state  of  mind 
in  which  questions  of  public  policy  were  no  longer 
argued  upon  their  merits,  but  all  discussion  was 
drowned  in  cheers  for  Jackson.  Such  a  state  of 
things  was  not  calculated  to  check  his  natural  vehe 
mence  and  disposition  to  override  all  obstacles  in 
carrying  his  point.  He  now  felt  it  to  be  his  sacred 
duty  to  demolish  the  bank.  In  his  next  message  to 


304  ANDREW  JACKSON 

Congress  he  created  some  alarm  by  expressing  doubts 
as  to  the  bank's  solvency,  and  recommending  an  inves 
tigation  to  see  if  the  deposits  of  public  money  were 
safe.  In  some  parts  of  the  country  there  were  indica 
tions  of  a  run  upon  the  branches  of  the  bank.  The 
Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  investigated  the  matter 
and  reported  the  bank  as  safe  and  sound,  but  a  minor 
ity  report  threw  doubt  upon  these  conclusions,  so  that 
the  public  uneasiness  was  not  allayed.  The  conclu 
sions  of  the  members  of  the  committee,  indeed,  bore 
little  reference  to  the  evidence  before  them,  and  were 
determined  purely  by  political  partisanship.  Jackson 
made  up  his  mind  that  the  deposits  must  be  removed 
from  the  bank.  The  act  of  1816,  which  created  that 
institution,  provided  that  the  public  funds  might  be 
removed  from  it  by  order  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  who  must,  however,  inform  Congress  of  his 
reasons  for  the  removal.  As  Congress  resolved,  by 
heavy  majorities,  that  the  deposits  were  safe  in  the 
bank,  the  spring  of  1833  was  hardly  a  time  when  a  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury  would  feel  himself  warranted, 
in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  act,  to  order 
their  removal.  Secretary  Me  Lane  was  accordingly 
unwilling  to  issue  such  an  order.  In  what  followed, 
Jackson  had  the  zealous  cooperation  of  Kendall  and 
Blair.  In  May  Me  Lane  was  transferred  to  the  State 
Department,  and  was  succeeded  in  the  treasury  by 
W.  J.  Duane  of  Pennsylvania.  The  new  secretary, 
however,  was  convinced  that  the  removal  was  neither 
necessary  nor  wise,  and  in  spite  of  the  President's 
utmost  efforts  refused  either  to  issue  the  orcler  or  to 
resign  his  office.  In  September,  accordingly,  Duane 
was  removed  and  R.  B.  Taney  of  Maryland  appointed 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO   305 

in  his  place.  Taney  at  once  ordered  that  after  the 
ist  of  October  the  public  revenues  should  no  longer 
be  deposited  with  the  national  bank,  but  with  sundry 
state  banks,  which  soon  came  to  be  known  as  the  "  pet 
banks."  Jackson  alleged,  as  one  chief  reason  for  this 
proceeding,  that  if  the  bank  were  to  continue  to  re 
ceive  public  revenues  on  deposit,  it  would  unscrupu 
lously  use  them  in  buying  up  all  the  members  of 
Congress,  and  thus  securing  an  indefinite  renewal  of 
its  charter.  This,  he  thought,  would  be  a  death-blow 
to  free  government  in  America.  His  action  caused 
intense  excitement  and  some  commercial  distress,  and 
prepared  the  way  for  further  disturbance.  In  the 
next  session  of  the  Senate  Clay  introduced  a  resolu 
tion  of  censure,  which  was  carried  after  a  debate  which 
lasted  all  winter.  It  contained  a  declaration  that  the 
President  had  assumed  "  authority  and  power  not 
conferred  by  the  Constitution  and  laws,  but  in  deroga 
tion  of  both."  Jackson  protested  against  the  resolu 
tion,  but  the  Senate  refused  to  receive  his  protest. 
Many  of  his  appointments  were  rejected  by  the  Sen 
ate,  especially  those  of  the  directors  of  the  bank  and 
of  Taney  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  An  attempt 
was  made  to  curtail  the  President's  appointing  power. 
On  the  other  hand,  many  of  the  President's  friends 
declaimed  against  the  Senate  as  an  aristocratic  insti 
tution  which  ought  to  be  abolished.  Benton  was 
Jackson's  most  powerful  and  steadfast  ally  in  the  Sen 
ate.  Benton  was  determined  that  the  resolution  of 
censure  should  be  expunged  from  the  records  of  that 
body,  and  his  motion  continued  to  be  the  subject  of 
acrimonious  debate  for  two  years.  The  contest  was 
carried  into  the  state  elections,  and  some  senators 


306  ANDREW   JACKSON 

resigned  in  consequence  of  instructions  received  from 
their  state  legislatures.  At  length,  January  16,  1837, 
a  few  weeks  before  Jackson's  retirement  from  office, 
Benton's  persistency  triumphed  and  the  resolution  of 
censure  was  expunged.  It  has  been  customary  with 
Whig  writers  to  laugh  at  Benton  for  this,  and  to  call 
his  conduct  spiteful,  boyish,  and  silly.  It  would  be 
more  instructive,  however,  to  observe  that  his  conduct 
was  the  natural  outgrowth  of  the  extreme  theory  of 
popular  government  which  he  held.  He  looked  upon 
Jackson  as  a  disinterested  tribune  of  the  people,  who 
for  carrying  out  the  popular  will  and  ridding  the 
country  of  an  exceedingly  dangerous  institution,  at 
the  cost  of  some  slight  disregard  of  red  tape,  had 
incurred  unmerited  censure ;  and  it  seemed  to  him  an 
important  matter,  and  not  a  mere  idle  punctilio,  that 
such  a  wrongful  verdict  should  be  reversed.  There 
was  a  good  deal  of  truth,  as  well  as  some  error,  in  this 
view.  If  pushed  to  extremes  it  would  result  in  un 
bridled  democracy,  which  in  the  hands  of  a  powerful 
and  unscrupulous  leader  is  liable  to  pass  into  Caesar- 
ism.  Webster  and  the  Whigs,  in  opposing  this  ex 
treme  view  of  popular  government,  in  contending  for 
the  necessity  of  constitutional  checks  in  such  a  coun 
try  as  ours,  and  in  blaming  Jackson  for  his  autocratic 
manner  of  overriding  such  checks,  were  quite  right. 
At  the  same  time  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  Jack 
son  was  purely  disinterested,  and  that  in  this  particu 
lar  case  he  did  fully  represent  the  will  of  the  people 
in  overthrowing  a  dangerous  institution.  The  com 
mercial  panic  which  followed  in  1837  was  by  most 
people  attributed  to  his  removal  of  the  deposits.  I 
shall  endeavour  to  show,  in  my  next  lecture,  on  "  Tip- 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO   307 

pecanoe  and  Tyler  too,"  that  this  notion  was  entirely 
incorrect,  and  the  causes  of  the  great  panic  lay  much 
deeper  than  was  supposed  at  the  time.  The  belief 
that  it  was  due  to  Jackson's  policy  was  a  chief  cause 
of  the  Whig  victory  in  1840;  but  as  soon  as  the  im 
mediate  effects  of  the  panic  were  over,  there  was  a 
general  acquiescence  in  the  final  death-blow  dealt  to  the 
bank  by  President  Tyler,  and  since  then  nobody  has 
had  the  hardihood  to  ask  that  it  should  be  restored. 

In  foreign  affairs  Jackson's  administration  won  great 
credit  through  its  enforcement  of  the  French  spoliation 
claims.  European  nations  which  had  claims  for 
damages  against  France,  on  account  of  spoliations 
committed  by  French  cruisers  during  the  Napoleonic 
wars,  had  found  no  difficulty  after  the  peace  of  1815 
in  obtaining  payment ;  but  the  claims  of  the  United 
States  had  been  superciliously  neglected.  In  1831, 
after  much  fruitless  negotiation,  a  treaty  was  made  by 
which  France  agreed  to  pay  the  United  States  five 
million  dollars  in  six  annual  instalments.  The  first 
payment  was  due  Febuary  2,  1833.  A  draft  for  the 
amount  was  presented  to  the  French  minister  of  finance, 
and  payment  was  refused  on  the  ground  that  no  appro 
priation  for  that  purpose  had  been  made  by  the  Cham 
bers.  Louis  Philippe  brought  the  matter  before  the 
Chambers,  but  no  appropriation  was  made.  Jackson 
was  not  the  man  to  be  trifled  with  in  this  way.  In  his 
message  of  December,  1834,  he  gravely  recommended 
to  Congress  that  a  law  be  passed  authorizing  the  cap 
ture  of  French  vessels  enough  to  make  up  the  amount 
due.  The  French  government  was  enraged,  and 
threatened  war  unless  the  President  should  apologize, 
—  not  a  hopeful  sort  of  demand  to  make  of  Andrew 


308  ANDREW  JACKSON 

Jackson.  Here  Great  Britain  interposed  with  good 
advice  to  France,  which  led  to  the  payment  of  the 
claim  without  further  delay.  The  effect  of  Jackson's 
attitude  W7as  not  lost  upon  European  governments, 
while  at  home  the  hurrahs  for  "  Old  Hickory  "  were 
louder  than  ever.  The  days  when  foreign  powers 
could  safely  insult  us  were  evidently  gone  by. 

In  the  election  of  1836  Jackson's  wishes  were  ful 
filled  in  the  victory  of  Van  Buren,  with  170  electoral 
votes  against  1 24  for  all  other  candidates.  The  remain 
der  of  Jackson's  life  was  spent  in  his  Tennessee  home, 
known  as  the  Hermitage.  About  the  time  of  his 
election  to  the  presidency  the  ugly  wound  received  in 
the  duel  with  Dickinson  in  1806,  which  had  never  prop 
erly  healed,  broke  out  afresh  and  became  more  and 
more  troublesome,  until  his  most  intimate  friends  were 
inclined  to  attribute  to  it  his  death,  which  occurred  on 
the  3d  of  June,  1845.  Throughout  his  extraordinary 
career  he  had  been  devoutly  religious,  and  one  cannot 
fully  comprehend  him  without  taking  into  account  the 
element  of  the  Puritan  person  thatwas  so  strong  in  him. 
There  probably  never  lived  a  man  more  strictly  conscien 
tious,  according  to  his  own  somewhat  narrow  lights,  than 
Andrew  Jackson.  Whether  he  ever  felt  moved  to  for 
give  his  enemies  may  be  doubted,  for  it  never  occurred 
to  him  that  he  was  not  in  the  right.  A  contrite  spirit 
he  can  hardly  have  had,  but  after  all  his  warfare  he 
sank  peacefully  to  rest.  His  remarkable  influence 
over  the  common  people  had  not  ceased  with  his 
presidency,  and  it  survived  his  death  until  it  ended  in 
a  kind  of  Barbarossa  legend  quite  rare  among  such  a 
people  as  ours.  •  To  this  day,  we  are  told,  there  is 
some  happy  valley  in  western  Pennsylvania,  the  precise 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO    309 

locality  of  which  is  not  too  strictly  indicated,  where 
old  men  every  fourth  year,  in  the  month  of  November, 
still  hobble  to  the  polls  and  drop  into  the  ballot-box 
their  loyal  vote  for  Andrew  Jackson ! 

The  period  of  Jackson's  presidency  was  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
and  nowhere  more  remarkable  than  in  the  United 
States.  It  was  signalized  by  the  introduction  and 
rapid  development  of  railroads,  of  ocean  navigation,  of 
agricultural  machines,  anthracite  coal,  and  friction 
matches,  of  the  modern  type  of  daily  newspaper,  of 
the  beginnings  of  such  cities  as  Chicago,  of  the  steady 
immigration  from  Europe,  of  the  rise  of  the  Abolition 
ists  and  other  reformers,  and  of  the  blooming  of 
American  literature,  when,  to  the  names  of  Bryant, 
Cooper,  and  Irving,  were  added  those  of  Longfellow, 
Whittier,  Prescott,  Holmes,  and  Hawthorne.  The 
rapid  expansion  of  the  country,  and  the  extensive 
changes  in  ideas  and  modes  of  living,  brought  to  the 
surface  much  crudeness  of  thought  and  action.  As 
the  typical  popular  hero  of  such  a  period,  Andrew 
Jackson  must  always  remain  one  of  the  most  pictu 
resque  and  interesting  figures  in  American  history. 
The  crudeness  of  some  of  his  methods,  and  the  evils 
that  have  followed  from  some  of  his  measures,  are 
obvious  enough,  and  have  often  been  remarked  upon. 
But  when  it  is  said  that  he  was  utterly  ignorant  of  the 
true  principles  of  statesmanship,  and  conducted  him 
self  in  his  presidency  like  a  bull  in  a  china  shop ; 
when  it  is  urged  that  his  election  to  the  presidency 
was  a  thing  to  be  lamented,  and  that  we  ought  never 
to  have  had  any  kind  of  man  for  chief  magistrate 
except  the  kind  represented  by  our  first  six  Presidents, 


310  ANDREW   JACKSON 

—  one  can  hardly  yield  unqualified  assent  to  such  propo 
sitions.  It  is  a  source  of  legitimate  pride  that  we  live 
in  a  country  where  a  man  may  rise  from  the  humblest 
origins  to  the  most  exalted  position  in  which  his  fel 
low-countrymen  can  place  him.  If  it  be  true  that  mere 
chance  may  bring  about  such  a  rise  of  fortune,  it  is  at 
least  very  seldom  that  such  can  be  the  case.  Usually 
it  must  require  such  rare  qualities  of  mind  and  char 
acter,  such  richness  of  experience  and  such  knowledge 
of  men,  as  to  be  more  than  equivalent  to  a  great  deal 
that  is  conventionally  classed  as  training  and  scholar 
ship.  No  man  in  his  senses  will  for  a  moment 
imagine  that  the  scholarly  Sumner  could  ever  have 
performed  the  herculean  task  allotted  to  Abraham 
Lincoln.  Now  in  the  case  of  Andrew  Jackson,  while 
he  was  not  versed  in  the  history  and  philosophy  of 
government,  it  is  far  from  correct  to  say  that  there 
was  nothing  of  the  statesman  about  him.  On  the 
contrary,  it  may  be  maintained  that  in  nearly  all  his 
most  important  public  acts,  except  those  that  dealt 
with  the  civil  service,  Jackson  was  right.  His  theory 
of  the  situation  was  not  reached  by  scientific  methods, 
but  it  was  sound,  and  it  was  much  needed.  Among 
the  ablest  books  on  government  that  have  ever  been 
written  —  books  that  ought  to  be  carefully  read  and 
deeply  pondered  by  every  intelligent  American  man 
and  woman  —  are  the  three  works  of  Herbert  Spencer, 
entitled  "  Social  Statics,"  "  The  Study  of  Sociology," 
and  "  Man  and  the  State."  The  theory  of  government 
set  forth  in  these  books  is  that  of  the  most  clear 
headed  and  powerful  thinker  now  living  in  the  world, 
a  man  who,  moreover,  is  thinking  the  thoughts  of 
to-morrow  as  well  as  of  to-day.  In  spirit  it  is  most 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO   311 

profoundly  American,  but  not  in  the  sense  in  which 
that  word  was  understood  by  Clay  and  the  Whigs. 
It  was  Jackson  whose  sounder  instincts  prompted  him 
to  a  course  of  action  quite  in  harmony  with  the  high 
est  political  philosophy.  During  the  administration 
of  John  Quincy  Adams  there  was  fast  growing  up  a 
tendency  toward  the  mollycoddling,  old  granny  theory 
of  government,  according  to  which  the  ruling  powers 
are  to  take  care  of  the  people,  build  their  roads  for 
them,  do  their  banking  for  them,  rob  Peter  to  pay 
Paul  for  carrying  on  a  losing  business,  and  tinker  and 
bemuddle  things  generally.  It  was,  of  course,  beyond 
the  power  of  any  man  to  override  a  tendency  of  this 
sort,  but  Jackson  did  much  to  check  it ;  and  still  more 
would  have  come  from  his  initiative  if  the  questions  of 
slavery  and  secession  had  not  so  soon  come  up  to 
absorb  men's  minds  and  divert  attention  from  every 
thing  else.  The  protective  theory  of  government  has 
too  much  life  in  it  yet ;  but  without  Jackson  it  would 
no  doubt  have  been  worse.  His  destruction  of  the 
bank  was  brought  about  in  a  way  that  one  cannot 
wish  to  see  often  repeated;  but  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  it  has  saved  us  from  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
and  danger.  By  this  time  the  bank,  if  it  had  lasted, 
would  probably  have  become  a  most  formidable  engine 
of  corruption. 

Herein  Jackson  was  powerfully  prompted  and  aided 
by  Van  Buren,  who  stood  in  somewhat  the  same  rela 
tion  to  him  as  Hamilton  to  Washington.  Unques 
tionably  Van  Buren  had  a  more  philosophical  and 
luminous  view  of  the  proper  sphere  and  functions  of 
government,  in  its  relations  to  the  people,  than  any 
other  American  statesman  since  Jefferson.  The  mantle 


312  ANDREW   JACKSON 

of  Jefferson  fell  upon  Van  Buren,  and  it  was  to  Jack 
son's  credit  that  he  took  that  statesman  into  his 
innermost  counsels.  The  soldier-President,  though 
doubtless  at  first  actuated  by  personal  motives,  soon 
found  the  soundest  kind  of  support. 

But  it  is  upon  his  attitude  toward  the  nullifiers  that 
Jackson's  most  conspicuous  claim  to  our  gratitude  is 
based.  The  question  as  to  whether  the  federal  Con 
stitution  created  a  nation  or  not  was  never  really  set 
tled  until  it  was. settled  by  war.  Previous  to  Jackson's 
presidency,  people's  ideas  on  the  subject  were  very 
hazy,  and  when  single  states,  or  sections  of  the  country, 
grumbled  and  threatened,  nobody  knew  exactly  what 
ought  to  be  done  about  it.  It  was  significant  that 
Webster's  great  speech  and  Jackson's  decisive  action 
should  have  come  so  near  together.  Webster's  speech 
was  not  only  a  most  masterly  summing  up  of  the  situ 
ation,  but  for  sublime  eloquence  we  must  go  back  to 
the  time  of  Demosthenes  to  find  its  equal.  Among  the 
forces  that  have  held  the  Union  together,  the  intelli 
gent  response  of  the  popular  mind  to  that  speech,  and 
the  strong  emotions  it  awakened,  must  be  assigned  a 
very  high  place.  But,  after  all,  it  was  only  Mr.  Web 
ster's  speech;  it  did  not  create  a  precedent  for  action; 
it  was  something  which  a  federal  executive  might  see 
fit  to  follow,  or  might  not.  But  from  the  moment 
when  President  Jackson  said  in  substance  to  the  nulli 
fiers,  "  Gentlemen,  if  you  attempt  to  put  your  scheme 
into  practice,  I  shall  consider  it  an  act  of  war  and  shall 
treat  it  accordingly,"  from  that  moment  there  was  no 
mistaking  the  significance  of  the  action.  It  created  a 
precedent  which,  in  the  hour  of  supreme  danger,  even 
the  puzzled,  reluctant,  hesitating  Buchanan  could  not 


AND  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  SEVENTY  YEARS  AGO   313 

venture  to  disregard.  The  recollection  of  it  had  much 
to  do  with  setting  men's  faces  in  the  right  direction  in 
the  early  days  of  1861 ;  and  those  who  lived  through 
that  doubting,  anxious  time  will  remember  how  people's 
thoughts  went  back  to  the  grim,  gaunt  figure,  long 
since  at  peace  in  the  grave,  and  from  many  and  many 
a  mouth  was  heard  the  prayer,  O  for  one  hour  of 
Andrew  Jackson ! 


VIII 

HARRISON,   TYLER 
AND   THE   WHIG  COALITION 


VIII 

HARRISON,   TYLER 

AND  THE  WHIG   COALITION 

IT  would  be  hard  to  find  in  the  whole  field  of  history 
a  subject  more  interesting  in  its  details  or  more  richly 
suggestive  in  its  illustrations  of  broad  philosophical 
principles  than  the  development  of  political  parties  in 
the  United  States  since  the  adoption  of  our  federal 
Constitution.  It  is  the  story  of  the  rapid  expansion 
of  principles  and  methods  of  government  long  prac 
tised  on  a  small  scale  in  the  townships  of  New  Eng 
land  and  the  parishes  and  counties  of  the  Southern 
states,  until  they  have  become  adapted  to  the  manage 
ment  of  an  imperial  dominion  extending  from  ocean 
to  ocean.  Population  has  grown  with  unexampled 
rapidity,  the  arts  and  sciences  have  achieved  such  con 
quests  as  our  grandfathers  would  have  deemed  incred 
ible,  the  growing  complexity  of  modern  industry  has 
quite  changed  the  aspect  of  society,  commercial  prob 
lems  have  taken  on  dimensions  difficult  to  grasp, 
strangers  from  all  parts  of  the  earth  come  thronging 
in  to  share  our  advantages,  while  too  often  they  need 
to  be  taught  the  very  rudiments  of  our  political 
methods,  vast  tracts  of  wilderness  have  been  subdued, 
rude  villages  springing  up  on  distant  prairies  change 
as  by  magic  into  noble  cities,  new  states  endowed  with 
ample  liberty  of  self-government  are  added  to  our 
federal  commonwealth,  till  the  constellation  is  about 

317 


318  HARRISON,    TYLER 

to  number  more  than  forty  stars ;  yet  amid  all  this 
huge  development  of  human  activity  the  political 
structure  reared  a  century  ago  has  increased  in  elastic 
strength.  In  spite  of  all  shortcomings,  it  has  shown 
itself  in  grave  emergencies  equal  to  the  situation, 
and  it  has  fulfilled  with  supreme  efficiency  the  first 
duty  of  government,  the  duty  of  preserving  order  and 
inspiring  confidence.  While  it  has  once  been  called 
upon  to  deal  with  a  convulsion  as  formidable  as  ever 
threatened  the  existence  of  a  nation,  its  success  in 
overcoming  the  evil  has  been  such  as  to  convince  us 
more  than  ever  of  its  invincible  strength ;  and  our 
trust  in  it  reaches  sublimity  when  shown  in  the  pro 
found  quiet  which  attends  upon  a  presidential  election 
in  which  eleven  million  votes  are  cast  and  the  admin 
istration  of  affairs  passes  from  one  party  to  another. 
People  in  the  Old  World  often  allude  to  American 
things  as  if  bigness  were  their  only  noticeable  attribute. 
But  in  the  physical  dimensions  of  the  facts  here  cited 
there  is 'deep  moral  significance.  They  furnish  unim 
peachable  testimony  to  the  essential  soundness  of  Ameri 
can  political  life,  and  justify  us  in  looking  forward  with 
hope  to  the  future.  Without  for  a  moment  underrating 
the  perils  that  beset  us,  or  the  serious  obstacles  to  right 
living  that  are  yet  to  be  overcome,  we  feel  that  the 
success  already  achieved  is  such  that  we  may  confront 
these  dangers  and  hindrances  with  cheerful  courage. 
If  the  partisan  view  of  American  politics  were  cor 
rect,  no  such  sound  development  of  national  life  would 
have  been  possible  in  this  country.  According  to  the 
partisan  theory,  which  we  may  find  daily  expounded 
in  the  newspapers  and  which  makes  every  fourth  year 
the  occasion  for  so  much  vapid  rhetoric  and  so  many 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  319 

shameless  lies,  —  according  to  this  theory,  all  the  politi 
cal  intelligence,  all  the  public  virtue,  all  the  patriotism, 
in  the  United  States  are  confined  to  one-half  of  the 
people,  while  the  other  half  are  not  only  unintelligent 
and  unscrupulous,  but  actuated  by  an  unaccountable 
preference  for  foreign  over  American  interests.  Ac 
cording  to  this  theory  American  party  strife  is  a  phase 
of  the  everlasting  struggle  between  Ormuzd  and  Ahri- 
man,  and  all  means,  fair  or  foul,  must  be  called  into 
requisition  in  order  to  suppress  the  evil  spirit  and 
keep  him  in  outer  darkness.  Under  the  influence  of 
such  a  theory  men's  consciences  are  often  at  election 
time  reconciled  to  tricks  which  in  more  sober  moments 
they  would  promptly  condemn.  Yet  in  the  main  the 
good  sense  of  the  American  people  has  kept  them 
from  acting  upon  such  a  one-sided  view  of  the  case ; 
and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  our  political  history  has 
not  been,  like  that  of  the  old  Italian  republics,  a  dis 
mal  record  of  wholesale  proscriptions  and  reversals  of 
policy,  culminating  in  the  loss  of  authority  on  the  part 
of  the  government  and  of  liberty  on  the  part  of  the 
citizens.  To  insure  the  stability  of  a  civilized  state,  it 
is  necessary  that  the  liberty  of  individuals  and  the 
authority  of  the  community  should  be  alike  sustained ; 
and  to  this  end  nature  seems  to  have  made  provision 
that  in  a  free  society,  where  people's  thoughts  and 
wishes  can  find  ready  expression,  a  fair  balance  shall 
be  preserved  between  the  votes  that  would  extend  the 
powers  of  government  and  those  that  would  limit 
them.  Says  the  sentry  in  "  lolanthe," 

"  I  often  think  it  comical, 

How  Nature  always  does  contrive 
That  every  boy  and  every  gal, 


320  HARRISON,   TYLER 

That's  born  into  the  world  alive, 
Is  either  a  little  Liberal 

Or  else  a  little  Conservative." 

If  we  were  to  take  a  hint  from  mathematical  physics 
we  might  regard  this  curious  fact  as  a  case  under  the 
general  law  of  deviations  from  an  average.  Out  of  a 
thousand  shots  fired  at  a  target  the  deviations  in  the 
one  direction  will  very  nearly  counterbalance  those  in 
the  other.  So  in  a  political  society,  where  free  aim 
can  be  taken  toward  the  course  of  action  most  bene 
ficial  to  the  community,  the  distribution  of  opinions 
will  be  found  to  follow  the  same  law.  The  line  of 
average  deviation  will  be  swayed  now  a  little  to  one 
side,  now  a  little  to  the  other,  and  the  resultant  course 
will  be  remarkably  steady;  it  will  express  itself  in 
what  we  call  a  conservative  and  moderate  policy. 
For  this  reason  there  is  no  form  of  political  society  so 
strong,  so  peaceful,  so  adaptable,  so  likely  to  endure, 
as  an  intelligent  democracy.  It  is  repression  that 
calls  forth  radicalism.  It  is  in  the  unwholesome  soil 
of  despotism  that  anarchist  weeds  spring  up.  When 
the  states  general  are  not  assembled  for  nearly  two 
centuries,  and  class  legislation  meanwhile  goes  on 
briskly,  it  is  time  to  look  out  for  a  reign  of  terror. 
In  American  history  the  revolutions  which  have 
been  dreaded  by  many  good  people,  when  there  has 
occurred  a  change  of  party  supremacy,  as  in  1801, 
in  1829,  and  in  1885,  have  in  general  not  happened. 
In  the  single  instance  in  which  a  violent  convulsion 
has  resulted,  in  1861,  the  exception  was  of  the  kind 
that  proves  the  rule,  for  the  trouble  was  caused  by  the 
existence  of  negro  slavery,  an  institution  utterly  incom 
patible,  with  the  spirit  of  true  democracy.  In  the  other 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  321 

instances  moderation  has  prevailed  for  two  reasons : 
first,  the  winning  party  has  usually  owed  its  victory  to 
the  transfer  of  relatively  independent  votes  from  the 
opposite  party,  and  such  transferred  votes  are  likely  to 
act  as  a  potent  conservative  influence  with  the  win 
ning  party ;  secondly,  there  are  certain  instincts  which 
govern  the  party  in  power  as  a  responsible  agent, 
and  certain  other  instincts  which  govern  the  party 
in  opposition  as  an  irresponsible  critic;  and  when 
the  party  in  opposition  becomes  the  party  in  power, 
it  passes  under  the  sway  of  the  former  group  of 
instincts,  and  any  tendency  to  push  matters  to  ex 
tremes  is  thus  powerfully  checked.  These  points 
were  illustrated  in  the  administration  of  Jefferson. 
The  Republican  victory  of  1800  was  won  partly  by  the 
aid  of  Federalist  votes  that  in  1 796  had  been  given  to 
Adams.  The  strong  Federalist  measures  of  Hamil 
ton  had  now  been  for  several  years  in  successful 
operation ;  they  had  become  part  of  our  system  of 
government,  and  to  have  laid  violent  hands  upon  them 
would  have  been  to  transfer  thousands  of  votes  back 
to  the  Federalists  in  1804.  Moreover,  when  Jeffer 
son  came  to  be  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  affairs, 
he  could  feel  the  usefulness  of  many  features  in  the 
Federalist  scheme  which  he  had  formerly  opposed. 
As  a  Republican  and  a  strict  constructionist  Jefferson 
had  no  right  to  double,  and  more  than  double,  the  area 
of  the  United  States  by  the  purchase  of  Louisiana. 
So  we  see  him  becoming  a  most  hardy  loose  con 
structionist  for  the  occasion,  and  pushing  the  doctrine 
of  "  implied  powers  "  to  an  extreme  from  which  the 
Federalists  shrink  back  in  horror.  For  the  next  dozen 
years  we  see  the  Republician  party  absorbing  and 


322  HARRISON,   TYLER 

appropriating  what  was  best  in  Federalism,  and  becom 
ing  more  and  more  the  national  party,  while  the  Fed 
eralists,  losing  their  hold  upon  the  people,  sink  into  the 
position  of  a  sectional  party  and  at  length  dwindle 
into  a  faction.  First  it  was  John  Quincy  Adams, 
prince  and  protagonist  of  mugwumps,  who  upheld 
Jefferson  in  the  embargo;  then  it  was  Daniel  Webster, 
who  refused  to  lend  countenance  to  the  Hartford  con 
vention  ;  and  so  the  great  party  of  Washington  and 
Hamilton  went  to  pieces  until,  in  1820,  the  victors 
could  afford  to  be  magnanimous,  and  Rufus  King  was 
reelected  to  the  United  States  Senate  through  the  aid 
of  Martin  Van  Buren.  As  Federalist  candidate  for 
the  presidency  in  1816,  King  had  received  the  electoral 
votes  of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Delaware.  In 
1820  there  was  no  candidate  to  take  the  field  against 
Monroe.  In  1824  the  four  candidates  were  so-called 
Republicans.  In  1828  the  election  of  Jackson  over 
Adams  was  the  victory  of  the  West  over  the  East,  of 
the  backwoodsman  over  the  Harvard  professor,  of  the 
so-called  "  man  of  the  people  "  over  the  so-called  "  aris 
tocrat,"  rather  than  the  victory  of  one  definite  and 
avowed  scheme  of  public  policy  over  another.  Never 
theless,  by  1828,  the  old  issues  having  disappeared, 
new  issues  had  arisen,  and  were  really,  though  perhaps 
not  distinctly,  involved  in  the  election.  The  ad 
ministration  of  Adams  had  raised  such  new  issues. 
The  rapid  settlement  of  the  Western  country  was  re 
vealing  the  urgent  need  of  better  means  of  com 
munication.  The  genius  of  George  Stephenson  had 
already  devised  the  means  of  dealing  with  such  a 
problem,  and  private  enterprise,  laying  thousands  of 
miles  'of  iron  rails,  was  soon  to  supply  the  need  most 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  323 

effectually.  But  meanwhile  it  was  quite  natural  that 
President  Adams  should  take  his  cue  from  the 
wonderful  roads  and  bridges  and  aqueducts  built  by 
the  ancient  Romans  with  money  raised  by  taxation, 
and  insist  that  Americans  might  well  do  likewise  and 
thus  bring  together  the  distant  sections  of  their  vast 
country.  This  was  the  policy  of  "  internal  improve 
ments."  The  end  aimed  at  was  a  broad,  a  national,  a 
noble  end.  It  was  only  the  method  of  attaining  it 
that  was  questionable.  There  were  some  who  deemed 
it  a  method  more  in  harmony  with  the  political  ideas 
of  ancient  Romans  than  with  those  of  modern  Amer 
icans  ;  but  before  the  question  could  be  settled  by 
political  argument  the  immense  capabilities  of  private 
enterprise  had  been  so  clearly  demonstrated  that,  for 
the  most  part,  the  policy  of  "  internal  improvements  " 
has  had  to  stand  upon  the  defensive. 

This  was  one  of  the  leading  issues  raised  during 
the  administration  of  John  Quincy  Adams.  Closely 
connected  with  it  was  the  question  of  the  tariff. 
Since  the  War  of  1812  had  made  it  difficult  to  obtain 
manufactured  goods  from  abroad,  the  scarcity  had 
served  as  a  stimulus  to  sundry  American  manufac 
tures,  and  the  protectionist  theory  had  begun  to  make 
powerful  converts,  among  them  Henry  Clay.  Mr. 
Clay  advocated  the  policy  of  raising  by  protective 
duties  more  revenue  than  was  needed  for  the  ordi 
nary  expenses  of  administration,  in  order  that  there 
might  be  a  surplus  to  be  spent  in  building  roads  and 
dredging  rivers ;  and  he  recommended  this  policy  to 
many  people  by  baptizing  it  "the  American  system." 
Then  there  was  the  question  as  to  the  continuance 
of  the  national  bank,  in  which  the  government  was 


324  HARRISON,   TYLER 

itself  a  stockholder.  This  did  not  become  a  burning 
question  until  late  in  Jackson's  first  term.  The 
extent  to  which  old  Federalist  ideas  had  been  adopted 
or  acquiesced  in  by  the  Republicans  was  well  shown 
in  the  fact  that  the  bill  for  rechartering  the  bank  in 
1816  was  signed  by  President  Madison.  But  Mad 
ison's  acquiescence  was  largely  due  to  the  want  of 
any  definite  alternative  policy ;  and  there  were  many 
who  regarded  the  bank  rather  as  a  temporary  make 
shift,  to  be  endured  for  the  moment,  than  as  a 
beneficent  institution  to  be  fastened  permanently 
upon  the  country. 

Upon  these  three  great  questions  of  internal  im 
provements,  tariff,  and  bank,  the  all-embracing  Re 
publican  party  became  divided  between  1824  and 
1832.  The  followers  of  Adams  and  Clay  came  to 
be  distinguished  as  National  Republicans,  and  this 
title  indicated  their  strong  point.  Their  policy  com 
mended  itself,  not  only  to  those  who  believed  it  to 
be  economically  sound,  but  to  many  more  who  felt  it 
desirable  that  above  all  things  the  national  govern 
ment  should  be  strong.  Such  people  inherited  the 
tendencies  of  the  original  Federalists.  They  were 
inclined  to  construe  liberally  the  implied  powers  of 
the  Constitution,  because  they  felt  that  the  govern 
ment  needed  such  implied  powers,  in  order  to  ward 
off  the  dangers  of  nullification  and  secession  which 
were  then  looming  upon  the  horizon.  This  was  the 
strong  point  of  the  National  Republicans.  It  was 
this  that  gave  them  the  powerful  support  of  Mr. 
Webster,  who  was  by  no  means  blind  to  the  economic 
unsoundness  of  the  so-called  American  system.  On 
the  other  hand,  those  who  now  began  acting  in 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  325 

opposition  to  the  National  Republicans  at  length 
accepted  the  name  of  Democrats,  which  had  formerly 
been  applied  to  Jefferson's  followers  by  their  oppo 
nents  as  a  term  of  disparagement.  In  the  days  when 
Jefferson  led  the  opposition,  and  the  guillotine  was 
at  work  in  Paris,  the  word  democracy  seemed  to 
smack  of  Jacobinism ;  but  in  the  days  when  Andrew 
Jackson  stood  for  government  by  the  people,  it  had 
a  pleasant  sound.  The  Democrats  were  right  in 
thinking  themselves  the  genuine  followers  of  Jef 
ferson,  and  they  saw  clearly  the  weak  side  of  the 
National  Republicans,  whose  doctrines  of  tariff,  bank, 
and  improvements  opened  the  door  for  limitless  job 
bery  and  iniquitous  class  legislation,  and  might  easily 
become  fraught  with  serious  danger  to  government 
by  the  people  and  for  the  people. 

The  new  division  between  parties  in  Jackson's  first 
term  was  not  accomplished  in  a  moment.  People 
did  not  at  once  array  themselves  in  opposite  ranks. 
There  was  doubt  and  hesitation.  General  principles 
were  then,  as  now,  complicated  and  obscured  by 
real  or  fancied  local  interests.  But  by  1832  the 
Democrats  had  become  solidly  welded  together  into 
a  party  with  a  rational  and  well-defined  policy,  and 
with  leaders  of  great  ability  and  influence,  as  variously 
exemplified  in  Jackson,  Benton,  Van  Buren,  and 
Blair.  They  were  opposed  to  the  theory  of  paternal 
government  which  formulated  itself  in  internal  im 
provements,  tariff,  and  bank ;  and  in  order  to  sustain 
their  position,  they  were  inclined  to  construe  the 
Constitution  strictly,  and  maintain  that  its  implied 
powers  did  not  extend  so  far  as  to  justify  such  a 
theory. 


326  HARRISON,   TYLER 

Our  survey  of  the  political  situation  in  1832  is, 
however,  not  yet  complete.  We  have  not  yet  taken 
into  the  account  the  peculiar  relations  of  the  people 
of  the  Southern  states  toward  the  two  new  parties,  as 
it  was  affected,  whether  directly  or  indirectly,  whether 
avowedly  or  tacitly,  by  the  existence  of  their  peculiar 
institution,  negro  slavery.  From  the  outset  Southern 
politicians  were  quick  in  perceiving  that  the  security 
of  their  system  of  slavery  depended  upon  that  inter 
pretation  of  the  Constitution  which  should  restrict  as 
far  as  possible  the  implied  powers  to  be  exercised  by 
the  federal  government.  Herein,  as  strict  construc- 
tionists,  they  might  seem  to  have  been  in  harmony 
with  the  Jackson  Democrats  as  against  the  National 
Republicans.  But  there  was  no  such  harmony.  When 
South  Carolina  in  1832  flung  into  the  political  arena 
the  gauntlet  of  nullification,  she  found  Jackson  and 
his  Democrats  even  more  stanch  in  defence  of  the 
Union  than  Clay  and  his  National  Republicans.  At 
that  supreme  moment  Daniel  Webster,  whose  political 
existence  was  identified  with  defence  of  the  Union, 
was  in  alliance  with  Jackson,  while  Clay  was  dally 
ing  and  temporizing  with  Calhoun.  In  order  to 
explain  this  we  must  take  our  start  from  the  South, 
and  see  how  the  political  situation  in  1832  presented 
itself  to  the  Southern  people.  We  know  what  was  the 
attitude  of  Calhoun  and  of  South  Carolina.  They 
represented  the  impulse  which  thirty  years  later  drove 
the  Southern  people  into  rebellion.  But  there  was 
also  in  the  Southern  states  a  mass  of  political  beliefs 
and  sentiments  which,  without  agreeing  with  Calhoun 
and  with  South  Carolina,  agreed  still  less  with  Jack 
son  and  Webster  and  the  North.  If  we  would  under- 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  327 

stand  the  course  of  events  that  led  to  the  overthrow  of 
the  Democrats  in  1840,  we  must  look  for  a  moment 
into  the  history  of  this  current  of  Southern  opinion 
that  was  loath  to  go  with  Calhoun,  but  felt  itself  in 
honour  bound  to  make  protest  against  coercion  as 
threatened  by  President  Jackson.  It  was  the  same 
current  of  opinion  and  sentiment  that  in  1861  was 
loath  to  go  with  Jefferson  Davis,  but  felt  itself  in 
honour  bound  to  resist  coercion  as  exercised  by 
President  Lincoln.  There  was  much  of  this  feeling 
in  the  South,  and  it  was  especially  strong  in  the 
border  states.  It  would  never  take  the  lead  in  a 
movement  toward  secession,  but  might  easily  be 
driven  into  such  a  movement  as  a  choice  between 
conflicting  alternatives.  Nowhere  was  this  feeling 
stronger  than  in  Virginia,  and  in  no  public  man 
was  it  more  completely  exemplified  than  in  John 
Tyler,  tenth  President  of  the  United  States.  For 
studying  the  sources  and  the  growth  of  this  feeling, 
there  is  no  better  text-book  than  the  "  Letters  and 
Times  of  the  Tylers,"  —  two  stout  octavos  published 
at  Richmond  in  1884  and  1885,  edited  by  one  of  the 
President's  younger  sons,  Mr.  Lyon  Gardiner  Tyler, 
president  of  William  and  Mary  College.  This  inter 
esting  book  gives  us  a  sketch  of  the  political  history 
of  the  United  States  for  a  hundred  years,  as  viewed  by 
the  intelligent  and  public-spirited  members  of  one 
of  the  leading  families  of  Virginia.  The  elder  John 
Tyler,  born  in  1747,  was  associated  with  Madison  in 
1785  in  the  resolution  which  secured  a  conference  of 
delegates  at  Annapolis  in  the  following  year,  and  thus 
led  the  way  toward  the  federal  Convention.  When 
the  federal  Constitution  was  laid  before  the  people, 


328  HARRISON,   TYLER 

however,  Mr.  Tyler  was  one  of  those  who  thought 
that  it  encroached  too  much  upon  state  rights,  and 
in  the  state  convention  of  1788  he  was  conspicuous 
among  the  opponents  of  ratification.  He  was  one 
of  those,  moreover,  who  believed  that  the  assent  of 
Virginia  to  the  Constitution  could  not  have  been 
secured  but  for  the  belief  of  many  of  the  delegates 
that  the  right  of  the  state  to  withdraw  peaceably  from 
the  Union,  in  case  it  should  ever  see  fit  to  do  so,  was 
not  really  surrendered.  For  the  twenty  years  from 
1788  to  1808  Mr.  Tyler  was  judge  of  the  general 
court  of  Virginia,  from  1808  to  1811  he  was  gov 
ernor  of  Virginia,  and  from  1811  until  his  death  in 
1813  he  was  judge  of  the  United  States  district  court 
for  Virginia.  His  son,  the  future  President,  was  born 
at  the  homestead  at  Greenway,  on  the  2Qth  of  March, 
1790.  In  early  boyhood  he  attended  the  small  school 
kept  by  a  Mr.  McMurdo,  who  was  so  diligent  in  his 
use  of  the  birch  that  in  later  years  President  Tyler 
said  "  it  was  a  wonder  he  did  not  whip  all  the  sense 
out  of  his  scholars."  At  the  age  of  eleven  young 
Tyler  was  one  of  the  ringleaders  in  a  rebellion  in 
which  the  despotic  McMurdo  was  overpowered  by 
numbers,  tied  hand  and  foot,  and  left  locked  up  in 
the  schoolhouse  until  late  at  night,  when  a  passing 
traveller  effected  an  entrance  and  released  him.  On 
complaining  to  Judge  Tyler,  the  indignant  school 
master  was  met  with  the  apt  reply,  "  Sic  semper  ty- 
rannis!"  The  future  President  was  graduated  at 
William  and  Mary  in  1807.  At  college  he  showed 
a  strong  interest  in  ancient  history.  He  was  also 
fond  of  poetry  and  music,  and,  like  Thomas  Jeffer 
son,  was  a  skilful  performer  on  the  violin.  In  1809 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  329 

he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  had  already  begun 
to  obtain  a  good  practice  when  he  was  elected  to  the 
legislature,  and  took  his  seat  in  that  body  in  Decem 
ber,  1811.  He  was  here  a  firm  supporter  of  Mr. 
Madison's  administration,  and  the  war  with  Great 
Britain,  which  soon  followed,  afforded  him  an  oppor 
tunity  to  become  conspicuous  as  a  forcible  and  per 
suasive  orator.  One  of  his  earliest  public  acts  is 
especially  interesting  in  view  of  the  famous  struggle 
with  the  Whigs,  which  in  later  years  he  conducted 
as  President.  The  charter  of  the  first  bank  of  the 
United  States,  established  in  1791,  was  to  expire  in 
twenty  years,  and  in  1811  the  question  of  renewing 
the  charter  came  before  Congress.  The  bank  was 
very  unpopular  in  Virginia,  and  the  assembly  of  that 
state,  by  a  vote  of  125  to  35,  instructed  its  senators 
at  Washington,  Richard  Brent  and  William  E.  Giles, 
to  vote  against  a  recharter.  The  instructions  de 
nounced  the  bank  as  an  institution,  in  the  founding 
of  which  Congress  had  exceeded  its  powers  and 
grossly  violated  state  rights.  Yet  there  were  many 
in  Congress  who,  without  approving  the  principle 
upon  which  the  bank  was  founded,  thought  the  eve 
of  war  an  inopportune  season  for  making  a  radical 
change  in  the  financial  system  of  the  nation.  Of 
the  two  Virginia  senators,  Brent  voted  in  favour  of 
the  recharter,  and  Giles  spoke  on  the  same  side, 
and  although,  in  obedience  to  instructions,  he  voted 
contrary  to  his  own  opinion,  he  did  so  under  pro 
test  On  January  14,  1812,  Mr.  Tyler,  in  the  Vir 
ginia  legislature,  introduced  resolutions  of  censure, 
in  which  the  senators  were  taken  to  task,  while  the 
Virginia  doctrines,  as  to  the  unconstitutional  char- 


330  HARRISON,   TYLER 

acter  of  the  bank  and  the  binding  force  of  instruc 
tions,  were  formally  asserted. 

Mr.  Tyler  was  reflected  to  the  legislature  annually, 
until  in  November,  1816,  he  was  chosen  to  fill  a  va 
cancy  in  the  United  States  House  of  Representatives. 
In  the  regular  election  to  the  next  Congress,  out  of 
two  hundred  votes  given  in  his  native  county,  he  re 
ceived  all  but  one.  As  a  member  of  Congress  he  soon 
made  himself  conspicuous  as  the  most  rigid  of  strict 
constructionists.  When  Mr.  Calhoun  introduced  his 
bill  in  favour  of  internal  improvements,  Mr.  Tyler  voted 
against  it.  He  also  voted  against  the  proposal  for  a 
national  bankrupt  act.  He  condemned,  as  arbitrary 
and  insubordinate,  the  course  of  General  Jackson  in 
Florida,  and  contributed  an  able  speech  to  the  long 
debate  over  the  question  as  to  censuring  that  gallant 
commander.  He  was  a  member  of  a  committee  for 
inquiring  into  the  affairs  of  the  national  bank,  and  his 
most  elaborate  speech  was  in  favour  of  Mr.  Trimble's 
motion  to  issue  a  scire  facias  against  that  institution. 
On  all  these  points  Mr.  Tyler's  course  seems  to  have 
pleased  his  constituents  ;  in  the  spring  election  of  1819 
he  did  not  consider  it  necessary  to  issue  the  usual  cir 
cular  address,  or  in  any  way  to  engage  in  a  personal 
canvass.  He  simply  distributed  copies  of  his  speech 
against  the  bank,  and  was  reflected  to  Congress 
unanimously. 

The  most  important  question  that  came  before 
the  sixteenth  Congress  related  to  the  admission  of 
Missouri  to  the  Union.  In  the  debates  over  this 
question,  Mr.  Tyler  took  extreme  ground  against  the 
imposition  of  any  restrictions  upon  the  extension  of 
slavery.  At  the  same  time  he  declared  himself  on 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  331 

principle  opposed  to  the  perpetuation  of  slavery,  and 
he  sought  to  reconcile  these  positions  by  the  argument 
that  in  diffusing  the  slave  population  over  a  wide  area 
the  evils  of  the  institution  would  be  diminished  and 
the  prospects  of  ultimate  emancipation  increased. 
"  Slavery,"  said  he,  "  has  been  represented  on  all  hands 
as  a  dark  cloud,  and  the  candour  of  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  (Mr.  Whitman)  drove  him  to  the 
admission  that  it  would  be  well  to  disperse  this  cloud. 
In  this  sentiment  I  entirely  concur  with  him.  How 
can  you  otherwise  disarm  it?  Will  you  suffer  it  to 
increase  in  its  darkness  over  one  particular  portion  of 
this  land,  till  its  horrors  shall  burst  upon  it  ?  Will  you 
permit  the  lightnings  of  its  wrath  to  break  upon  the 
South,  when  by  the  interposition  of  a  wise  system  of 
legislation  you  may  reduce  it  to  a  summer's  cloud  ? " 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  he  argued,  had  been 
able  to  emancipate  their  slaves  only  because  they  were 
so  few.  Dispersion,  moreover,  would  be  likely  to 
ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  black  man,  for  by 
making  his  labour  scarce  in  each  particular  locality,  it 
would  increase  the  demand  for  it,  and  would  thus 
make  it  the  interest  of  the  master  to  deal  fairly  and 
generously  with  his  slaves.  To  the  obvious  objection 
that  the  increase  of  the  slave  population  would  fully 
keep  up  with  its  territorial  expansion,  he  replied  by 
denying  that  such  would  be  the  case.  His  next  argu 
ment  was  that  if  an  old  state,  such  as  Virginia,  could 
have  slaves,  while  a  new  state,  such  as  Missouri,  was 
to  be  prevented  by  federal  authority  from  having  them, 
then  the  old  and  new  states  would  at  once  be  placed 
upon  a  different  footing,  which  was  contrary  to  the 
spirit  of  the  Constitution.  If  Congress  could  thus 


332  HARRISON,   TYLER 

impose  'one  restriction  upon  a  state,  where  was  the 
exercise  of  such  a  power  to  end  ?  Once  grant  such  a 
power,  and  what  was  to  prevent  a  slaveholding  ma 
jority  in  Congress  from  forcing  slavery  upon  some 
territory  where  it  was  not  wanted  ?  Mr.  Tyler  pursued 
the  argument  so  far  as  to  deny  "  that  Congress,  under 
its  constitutional  authority  to  establish  rules  and  regu 
lations  for  the  territories,  had  any  control  whatever 
over  slavery  in  the  territorial  domain."  He  was  un 
questionably  foremost  among  the  members  of  Congress 
in  occupying  this  extreme  position.  When  the 
Missouri  Compromise  bill  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  1 34 
to  42,  all  but  5  of  the  nays  were  from  the  South,  and 
from  Virginia  alone  there  were  1 7,  of  which  Mr.  Tyler's 
vote  was  one.  The  Richmond  Enquirer  of  March  7, 
1820,  in  denouncing  the  compromise,  observed,  in 
language  of  prophetic  interest,  that  the  Southern  and 
Western  representatives  now  "  owe  it  to  themselves  to 
keep  their  eyes  firmly  fixed  on  Texas ;  if  we  are  cooped 
up  on  the  north,  we  must  have  elbow-room  to  the 
west." 

Mr.  Tyler's  further  action  in  this  Congress  related 
chiefly  to  the  question  of  a  protective  tariff,  of  which 
he  was  an  unflinching  opponent.  In  1821,  finding 
his  health  seriously  impaired,  he  declined  a  reelection, 
and  returned  to  private  life.  His  retirement,  however, 
was  of  short  duration,  for  in  1823  he  was  again  elected 
to  the  Virginia  legislature.  Here,  as  a  friend  to  the 
candidacy  of  Mr.  Crawford  for  the  presidency,  he  dis 
approved  the  attacks  upon  the  congressional  caucus 
begun  by  the  legislature  of  Tennessee  in  the  interests 
of  Andrew  Jackson.  The  next  year  he  was  nominated 
to  fill  a  vacancy  in  the  United  States  Senate,  but 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  333 

Littleton  Tazewell  was  elected  over  him.  He  opposed 
an  attempt  which  was  made  about  this  time  to  remove 
William  and  Mary  College  to  Richmond,  and  was 
afterward  made  successively  rector  and  chancellor  of 
the  college,  which  prospered  signally  under  his 
management.  In  December,  1825,  he  was  chosen  by 
the  legislature  to  the  governorship  of  Virginia,  and  in 
the  following  year  he  was  reflected  by  a  unanimous 
vote.  As  the  strict  constructionists  were  now  becom 
ing  gradually  united  in  opposition  to  the  policy  of 
President  Adams,  many  members  of  Crawford's  party, 
under  the  lead  of  John  Randolph,  went  to  swell  the 
ranks  of  the  Jacksonians,  while  others,  among  whom 
Mr.  Tyler  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished,  main 
tained  a  certain  independence  in  opposition.  It  is  to 
be  set  down  to  Mr.  Tyler's  credit  that  he  never  attached 
any  importance  to  the  malicious  story,  believed  by  so 
many  Jacksonians,  of  a  corrupt  bargain  between 
Adams  'and  Clay.  A  slander  of  somewhat  similar 
character  was  soon  to  be  aimed  at  himself.  Soon  after 
the  meeting  of  the  Virginia  legislature,  in  December, 
1826,  the  friends  of  Clay  and  Adams  combined  with 
the  members  of  the  opposite  party  who  could  no 
longer  endure  Randolph's  crazy  freaks,  and  thus  Gov 
ernor  Tyler  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate 
by  the  narrow  majority  of  115  votes  to  no.  Some 
indiscreet  friends  of  Jackson  now  sought  to  show  that 
there  must  have  been  some  secret  and  reprehensible 
understanding  between  Tyler  and  Clay,  but  the  at 
tempt  failed  utterly.  It  is  very  interesting,  however, 
to  observe  that  Tyler  owed  his  seat  in  the  Senate  to 
the  followers  of  the  man  with  whom  he  was  hereafter 
to  enter  into  such  an  extraordinary  alliance. 


334  HARRISON,   TYLER 

In  the  Senate  Mr.  Tyler  took  a  conspicuous  stand 
against  the  so-called  "tariff  of  abominations,"  which 
even  Benton  and  Van  Buren,  who  were  not  yet  in  1828 
quite  clear  as  to  their  proper  attitude,  were  induced  to 
support.  There  was  thus  some  ground  for  Tyler's 
opinion,  expressed  at  this  time,  that  the  Jacksonians 
were  not  really  orthodox  defenders  of  strict  construc 
tion.  It  was  on  the  occasion  of  Jackson's  famous  veto 
of  the  Maysville  turnpike  bill,  May  27,  1830,  that 
this  most  rigorous  stickler  for  constitutional  propriety 
found  himself  for  the  moment  drawn  toward  the  Presi 
dent.  It  was  quite  proper  and  characteristic  for  him 
to  attack  the  irregularity  of  Jackson's  appointment  of 
commissioners  to  negotiate  a  commercial  treaty  with 
Turkey,  without  duly  informing  the  Senate  ;  but  at  the 
same  time  he  showed  good  will  toward  the  President 
by  voting  in  favour  of  confirming  the  appointment  of 
Van  Buren  as  minister  to  Great  Britain.  In  the  presi 
dential  election  of  1832  he  supported  Jackson,  but  only 
as  a  less  objectionable  candidate  than  Clay,  Wirt,  or 
Floyd.  The  preference  accorded  to  Jackson  over 
Floyd  would  indicate  that  the  President's  immortal 
Union  toast  had  not  seriously  alarmed  Mr.  Tyler,  who 
disapproved  of  nullification  and  condemned  the  course 
of  South  Carolina  as  rash  and  ill-considered.  Herein 
Tyler  was  wiser  than  Calhoun.  On.  the  question  of  the 
tariff  the  South  had  really  a  strong  case,  and  to  throw 
the  gauntlet  of  nullification  into  the  arena  was  simply 
to  offer  the  chances  of  victory  to  the  North.  But  when 
it  came  to  suppressing  nullification  with  the  strong 
hand,  Mr.  Tyler's  attitude  was  curiously  significant. 
He  was  emphatic  in  his  opposition  to  President  Jack 
son's  proclamation.  He  denounced  it  as  a  "tremen- 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  335 

dous  engine  of  federalism,"  tending  toward  the  "  con 
solidation  "  of  the  states  into  a  single  political  body. 
His  attitude  in  1833  was  substantially  the  same  as  in 
1 86 1,  when  secession  had  become  a  grim  reality.  In  the 
earlier  crisis,  as  in  the  later,  he  tried  to  stand  upon  the 
ground  that  while  secession  might  be  wrong,  coercion 
was  a  greater  wrong.  This  was  the  mental  attitude 
that  in  1861  led  Virginia  to  join  the  Southern  Confed 
eracy  and  made  Mr.  Tyler  in  the  last  year  of  his  life  a 
member  of  the  Confederate  Congress.  And  as  in  1861 
the  secession  of  Virginia  was  preceded  by  the  assem 
bling  of  a  peace  convention  of  border  states,  with  Tyler 
for  its  president,  so  now  in  1833  he  undertook  to  play 
the  part  of  mediator  between  Clay  and  Calhoun,  and 
in  that  capacity  earnestly  supported  the  compromise 
tariff  bill  introduced  by  the  former  in  the  Senate  on 
the  1 2th  of  February.  In  this  measure,  which  was  op 
posed  by  Mr.  Webster  as  an  ill-timed  and  mischievous 
concession  to  the  threats  of  South  Carolina,  we  may 
see  a  premonitory  symptom  of  that  alliance  between 
the  followers  of  Tyler  and  Clay  which  soon  resulted 
in  the  formation  of  the  Whig  party.  At  the  same  time 
occurred  the  sudden  and  decisive  break  between  Tyler 
and  Jackson.  In  a  special  message  to  Congress,  the 
President  asked  for  full  and  explicit  authority  to  use 
the  army  and  navy,  if  need  be,  for  the  purpose  of 
suppressing  armed  insurrection.  Congress  readily  re 
sponded  with  the  so-called  "  Force  Bill,"  and  here  Mr. 
Tyler  showed  that  he  had  the  courage  of  his  convic 
tions.  When  the  bill  was  put  to  vote  in  the  Senate,  on 
the  2oth  of  February,  some  of  its  Southern  opponents 
were  conveniently  absent,  others  got  up  and  went  out 
in  order  to  avoid  putting  themselves  on  record.  The 


336  HARRISON,   TYLER 

vote,  as  then  taken,  stood :   Yeas,  thirty-two ;  Nay,  one, 
to  wit,  John  Tyler. 

It  was  thus  on  the  question  of  the  right  of  the  fed 
eral  government  to  use  force  in  suppressing  nullifica 
tion  that  the  Southern  strict  constructionists  discovered 
that  there  was  no  room  for  them  within  the  Democratic 
party  as  then  constituted  under  the  lead  of  Jackson, 
Van  Buren,  Benton,  and  Blair.  In  this  conclusion 
the  peculiar  features  of  Jackson's  attack  upon  the 
United  States  Bank  only  confirmed  them.  When  it 
came  to  the  removal  of  the  deposits,  Mr.  Tyler's  break 
with  the  administration  was  thorough  and  final.  As 
we  have  seen,  he  was  no  friend  to  the  bank ;  he  had 
fought  against  it  on  every  fitting  occasion,  since  the 
beginning  of  his  public  career.  And  now,  in  1834,  he 
declared  emphatically,  "  I  believe  the  bank  to  be  the 
original  sin  against  the  Constitution,  which,  in  the 
progress  of  our  history,  has  called  into  existence  a 
numerous  progeny  of  usurpations.  Shall  I  permit 
this  serpent,  however  bright  its  scales  or  erect  its 
mien,  to  exist  by  and  through  my  vote?"  Neverthe 
less,  strongly  as  he  disapproved  of  the  bank,  Mr.  Tyler 
disapproved  still  more  strongly  of  the  methods  by 
which  President  Jackson  assailed  it.  There  seemed 
at  that  time  to  be  growing  up  in  the  United  States  a 
spirit  of  extreme  unbridled  democracy  quite  foreign 
to  the  spirit  in  which  our  constitutional  government, 
with  its  carefully  arranged  checks  and  limitations,  was 
founded.  It  was  a  spirit  that  prompted  mere  majori 
ties  to  insist  upon  having  their  way,  even  at  the  cost 
of  overriding  all  constitutional  checks  and  limits. 
This  wild  spirit  possessed  many  members  of  Jack 
son's  party,  and  it  found  expression  in  what  Mr.  Ben- 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  337 

ton  grotesquely  called  the  "  demos  Krateo  "  principle. 
A  good  illustration  of  it  was  to  be  seen  in  Benton's 
argument,  after  the  election  of  1824,  that  Jackson, 
having  received  a  plurality  of  electoral  votes,  ought  to 
be  declared  President,  and  that  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  in  choosing  Adams,  was  really  "defying 
the  will  of  the  people."  In  similar  wise  President 
Jackson,  after  his  triumphant  reelection  in  1832,  was 
inclined  to  interpret  his  huge  majorities  as  mean 
ing  that  the  people  were  ready  to  uphold  him  in  any 
course  that  he  might  see  fit  to  pursue.  This  feeling 
no  doubt  strengthened  him  in  his  determined  attitude 
toward  the  nullifiers,  and  it  certainly  contributed  to 
his  arbitrary  and  overbearing  method  of  dealing  with 
the  bank,  culminating,  in  1833,  in  his  removal  of  the 
deposits.  There  was  ground  for  maintaining  that  in 
this  act  the  President  exceeded  his  powers,  and  it 
seemed  to  illustrate  the  tendency  of  unbridled  democ 
racy  toward  practical  despotism,  under  the  leadership 
of  a  headstrong  and  popular  chief.  Mr.  Tyler  saw  in 
it  such  a  tendency,  and  he  believed  that  the  only  safe 
guard  for  constitutional  government,  whether  against 
the  arbitrariness  of  Jackson  or  the  latitudinarianism 
of  the  Whigs,  lay  in  a  most  rigid  adherence  to  strict 
constructionist  doctrines.  Accordingly,  in  his  speech 
of  the  24th  of  February,  1834,  he  proposed  to  go 
directly  to  the  root  of  the  matter  and  submit  the  ques 
tion  of  a  national  bank  to  the  people  in  the  shape  of 
a  constitutional  amendment,  either  expressly  forbid 
ding  or  expressly  allowing  Congress  to  create  such  an 
institution.  According  to  his  own  account,  he  found 
Clay  and  Webster  ready  to  cooperate  with  him  in  this 
course,  while  Calhoun  held  aloof.  Nothing  came  of 


338  HARRISON,   TYLER 

the  project;  but  it  was  now  easy  to  see  the  alliance 
fast  maturing  between  the  Northern  National  Repub 
licans  and  those  Southerners  who  agreed  with  Tyler. 
In  December,  1834,  as  member  of  a  committee  for  in 
vestigating  the  management  of  the  bank,  Mr.  Tyler 
brought  in  an  elaborate  report  which  seems  to  have 
been  a  very  fair  statement  of  the  case.  It  did  not  sus 
tain  Jackson's  charges  of  mismanagement,  and  was 
accordingly  attacked  by  Ben  ton  as  a  partisan  defence 
of  the  bank.  This  doubtless  served  to  confuse  the 
minds  of  people  as  to  Tyler's  real  attitude.  Before 
the  smoke  of  the  battle  had  cleared  away,  people 
would  not  distinguish  between  disapproval  of  Jack 
son's  methods  and  approval  of  the  bank ;  they  would 
consider  the  one  as  equivalent  to  the  other,  and  so 
they  did.  An  incident  which  occurred  the  next  year 
served  to  confirm  this  view.  On  Mr.  Clay's  famous 
resolution  to  censure  the  President  for  the  removal  of 
the  deposits,  Tyler  had  voted,  along  with  Webster,  in 
the  affirmative.  While  Benton's  resolutions  for  ex 
punging  the  vote  of  censure  were  before  the  Senate, 
the  Democratic  legislature  of  Virginia  instructed  the 
two  senators  from  that  state  to  vote  in  the  affirmative. 
As  to  the  binding  force  of  such  instructions  Mr.  Tyler 
had  long  ago,  in  the  case  of  Giles  and  Brent  above 
mentioned,  placed  himself  unmistakably  upon  record. 
His  colleague,  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  was  known 
to  entertain  similar  views.  On  receiving  the  instruc 
tions,  both  senators  refused  to  obey  them.  Both  voted 
against  the  expunging  resolution,  but  Leigh  kept  his 
seat,  while  the  rigidly  consistent  Tyler  resigned  and 
went  home.  The  result  of  this  for  Leigh  was  to  be 
retirement  to  private  life ;  for  Tyler  it  was  to  be  eleva 
tion  to  the  presidency. 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  339 

He  had  already  been  recommended  for  the  vice- 
presidency  by  the  legislatures  of  several  Southern 
states.  During  the  year  1834  the  Whig  party  came 
into  existence.  At  the  North  the  National  Republicans, 
the  party  of  Clay  and  Webster,  were  beginning  to 
call  themselves  Whigs ;  while  the  Southern  strict  con- 
structionists  gladly  took  the  name  of  "  State  Rights 
Whigs."  Between  these  two  wings  of  the  new  party 
there  was  no  bond  of  union  whatever  except  their 
common  hostility  to  the  Jackson  Democrats.  Their 
alliance  was  as  unnatural  as  that  of  Fox  and  North 
against  Lord  Shelburne  in  1783,  or  as  that  of  John 
Bright  with  Lord  Salisbury  against  Mr.  Gladstone 
scarcely  a  decade  ago.  The  protective  theory  of  govern 
ment,  with  its  tariff,  bank,  and  internal  improvements, 
which  was  the  fetich  of  the  Northern  Whigs,  was  to  the 
Southern  Whigs  a  device  of  Belial.  Even  in  their  com 
mon  hatred  of  Jackson  they  did  not  stand  upon  common 
ground;  for  the  Northern  Whigs  hated  him  for  his 
stanch  opposition  to  paternal  government,  while  the 
Southern  Whigs  hated  him  for  the  severity  with  which 
he  frowned  upon  nullification.  The  nearest  approach 
to  real  sympathy  between  the  two  discordant  allies 
was  furnished  by  Tyler  and  Webster,  in  so  far  as 
they  were  agreed  for  the  moment  in  condemning  the 
violence  of  Jackson's  proceedings  in  the  particular 
case  of  the  bank.  And  it  was  in  this  one  point  of 
sympathy  that  the  name  "  Whig "  had  its  origin. 
They  called  themselves  Whigs  because  they  saw  fit 
to  represent  Jackson  as  a  sort  of  unconstitutional 
tyrant,  like  George  III.,  and  for  a  moment  they  tried 
to  stigmatize  Jackson's  followers  as  "  Tories,"  but 
this  device  was  unsuccessful. 


340  HARRISON,   TYLER 

The  alliance  was  so  unnatural  that  it  took  some 
time  to  complete  it.  In  1836  there  was  no  agreement 
upon  a  candidate  for  the  presidency.  The  "  State 
Rights  "  Whigs  nominated  Hugh  Lawson  White  of 
Tennessee  for  President,  and  John  Tyler  for  Vice- 
president.  The  Northern  Whigs,  in  the  hope  of 
gathering  votes  from  as  many  quarters  as  possible, 
thought  it  best  to  put  forward  some  more  colourless 
candidate  than  their  real  leader,  Mr.  Clay,  and  ac 
cordingly  they  nominated  General  William  Henry 
Harrison.  This  gentleman  was  born  in  Berkeley, 
Virginia,  February  9,  1773.  His  father,  Benjamin 
Harrison,  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  was  twice  elected  governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  and  in  the  state  convention  of  1 788  was  allied 
with  the  elder  Tyler  in  opposing  the  adoption  of  the 
federal  Constitution.  William  Henry  Harrison  was 
educated  at  Hampden  Sidney  College,  Virginia,  but 
broke  off  his  studies  in  1791  to  take  a  commission 
in  the  army  on  the  Western  frontier,  commanded  by 
Anthony  Wayne.  Having  distinguished  himself  for 
gallantry  and  for  executive  ability,  he  was  in  1800 
appointed  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs  and  gov 
ernor  of  the  Indiana  territory,  comprising  the  present 
states  of  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin. 
He  held  that  office  for  several  years,  and  when  the 
Indian  War  broke  out  prematurely,  in  1811,  he  de 
feated  Tecurn sen's  brother,  the  Prophet,  on  the  7th 
of  November  of  that  year,  in  a  bloody  and  decisive 
battle  at  Tippecanoe,  on  the  upper  Wabash.  In  the 
autumn  of  1812  he  was  appointed  to  the  chief  com 
mand  of  the  United  States  forces  in  the  Northwest, 
and  on  October  5,  1813,  he  won  the  battle  of  the 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  341 

Thames  over  the  allied  British  and  Indians  com 
manded  by  General  Proctor  and  Tecumseh.  This 
battle,  in  which  Tecumseh  was  killed  and  nearly  the 
whole  British  force  surrendered,  was  decisive  of  the 
war  in  the  Northwest,  and  the  two  victories  gave 
General  Harrison  a  military  reputation  second  only 
to  Jackson's.  In  1816-1819  he  was  a  member  of 
Congress.  In  1819  he  was  chosen  to  the  senate  of 
Ohio,  and  in  1822  was  again  a  candidate  for  Congress, 
but  was  defeated  because  of  his  vote  against  the 
admission  of  Missouri  to  the  Union  as  a  free  state. 
In  1824  he  was  chosen  to  the  United  States  Senate, 
in  1828  President  Adams  sent  him  out  as  minister 
to  the  United  States  of  Colombia,  and  in  the  follow 
ing  year  he  was  recalled  by  President  Jackson,  and 
retired  to  his  farm  at  North  Bend,  near  Cincinnati. 
He  was  a  good  soldier  and  a  thoroughly  upright  and 
trustworthy  man.  Upon  the  political  questions  that 
were  dividing  Whigs  from  Democrats  in  1836,  he  had 
done  little  or  nothing  to  commit  himself,  and  in  nomi 
nating  him  for  the  presidency  the  Whigs  sought  to 
turn  to  their  own  uses  the  same  kind  of  popular 
enthusiasm  by  which  Jackson  had  profited.  But  the 
ill-organized  opposition  had  no  chance  of  winning  a 
victory  over  the  solid  Democratic  column.  Many 
votes  were  thrown  away.  South  Carolina,  still  fight 
ing  her  own  battle,  voted  for  Person  Mangum,  a 
State  Rights  Whig.  Massachusetts  voted  for  Daniel 
Webster.  Mr.  White  obtained  the  1 1  votes  of  Georgia 
and  the  15  of  Tennessee,  for  the  latter  state,  in  spite 
of  her  reverence  for  Jackson,  did  not  approve  his 
policy  of  coercion  and  could  not  be  induced  to  sup 
port  Van  Buren.  General  Harrison  carried  Vermont, 


342  HARRISON,   TYLER 

New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Kentucky,  Ohio, 
and  Indiana,  —  in  all  73  votes.  The  opposition  had 
hoped  that,  with  so  many  candidates  in  the  field, 
there  would  be  enough  bolting  and  scattering  to 
prevent  a  choice  by  the  people,  and  throw  the  election 
into  the  House  of  Representatives.  But  Mr.  Van 
Buren  won  an  easy  victory.  He  received  170  electoral 
votes,  a  majority  of  46  over  the  other  candidates  taken 
together.  The  result  of  the  canvass  for  the  vice- 
presidency  was  curious.  Colonel  Richard  Johnson, 
the  Democratic  candidate,  obtained  exactly  half  the 
number  of  votes  in  the  electoral  college,  so  that  there 
was  no  choice.  For  the  only  time  in  our  history  the 
election  devolved  upon  the  Senate,  which  proceeded 
to  choose  Colonel  Johnson.  What  more  especially 
concerns  us  here  is  the  vote  for  Mr.  Tyler.  He 
failed  to  carry  his  own  state,  for  Virginia  was  now 
firmly  Democratic,  and  remained  so  until  1860;  but 
he  ran  ahead  of  his  fellow-candidate,  Mr.  White,  and, 
besides  Tennessee  and  Georgia,  he  received  the  votes 
of  Maryland  and  South  Carolina. 

The  result  of  this  election  left  Mr.  Tyler  for  the  next 
two  years  in  retirement,  but  one  opinion  of  his,  very 
clearly  pronounced  at  this  time,  is  worth  quoting  as 
an  illustration  of  the  independence  of  judgment  which 
he  sometimes  manifested.  The  followers  of  Calhoun 
were  bringing  forward  in  Congress  what  was  known 
as  the  "  gag  resolution  "  against  all  petitions  and  mo 
tions  relating  in  any  way  to  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
Mr.  Tyler  condemned  this  measure  as  impolitic  on  the 
part  of  the  slaveholders,  because  it  yoked  together  the 
question  as  to  the  right  of  petition  and  the  question 
as  to  slavery,  and  thus,  by  presenting  the  slave  power 


AND   THE    WHIG   COALITION  343 

as  hostile  to  free  speech,  gave  a  distinct  moral  advan 
tage  to  the  Abolitionists.  The  spirit  of  slavery,  how 
ever,  was  true  to  its  own  barbarous  instincts  when  it 
rejected  this  prudent  counsel. 

In  the  spring  of  1838  Mr.  Tyler  was  returned  to 
the  Virginia  legislature,  and  in  the  following  winter 
his  friends  put  him  forward  for  reelection  to  the  United 
States  Senate.  In  the  memorable  contest  that  ensued, 
in  which  William  Rives  was  his  principal  competitor, 
the  result  was  a  complete  deadlock,  so  that  the  legis 
lature  adjourned  without  making  a  choice. 

Meanwhile  the  financial  crisis  of  1837  —  the  most 
severe  that  has  ever  been  known  in  this  country  —  had 
wrecked  the  administration  of  President  Van  Buren. 
It  was  believed  at  the  time  that  this  frightful  tempest 
in  the  commercial  world  was  wholly  or  chiefly  due  to 
Jackson's  assaults  upon  the  United  States  Bank,  and 
this  opinion  has  been  so  confidently  stated  as  a  fact, 
and  so  often  reiterated,  that  it  has  come  to  be  one  of 
the  commonplaces  of  history.  Yet,  like  many  other 
commonplace  assertions  in  history,  it  is  only  partially 
true.  The  causes  of  the  panic  of  1837  lay  deeper  than 
any  acts  of  any  administration.  The  seeds  of  distress 
had  been  so  plentifully  sown  that  an  abundant  crop 
must  have  been  garnered  about  that  time,  no  matter 
whether  a  Whig  or  a  Democrat  were  occupant  of  the 
White  House,  no  matter  whether  the  public  funds  were 
deposited  in  one  great  bank  or  in  fifty  small  ones. 
Since  1820  the  increase  of  the  country  in  wealth  and 
population,  and  the  rapidity  of  expansion  westward, 
had  been  wonderful.  Tennessee  had  nearly  doubled 
in  population,  Ohio  had  more  than  doubled,  Indiana 
had  more  than  trebled,  Mississippi  had  increased  four- 


344  HARRISON,   TYLER 

fold,*  Missouri  fivefold,   Illinois    sevenfold,    Michigan 
twentyfold.      A  transformation  was  going  on  in   the 
cities.       In    1820  New  York  and    Philadelphia,  with 
populations  a  little  over  100,000,  had  hardly  ceased  to 
look  like  country  towns ;  by  1835  the  former  had  passed 
250,000  and  the  latter  200,000,  so  that  they  were  begin 
ning  to  take  on  the  appearance  of  large  cities.    In  1820 
the  national    debt  was    $90,000,000;    by    1835    every 
cent  of   it  was  paid   and  there  was  a  surplus  in  the 
treasury,  a  fact  which  powerfully  impressed   people's 
imaginations,  both  here  and  in  Europe.     This  pros 
perity  was  the  cause  of  endless  self-glorification,  and 
it  was  apt  to  be  ascribed  to  American  institutions  in 
a  greater  degree  than  to  the  natural   resources  of  the 
country.     It  began  to  seem  as  if  nothing  were  impos 
sible  to  American  enterprise,  and  confidence  grew  into 
recklessness.       It  was  an  era   of   road-building.       In 
1820  it  cost  $88  to  carry  a  ton  of  freight  from  Buffalo 
to  Albany;  in  1825  the  Erie  Canal  was  finished,  and 
that  ton  could    be  carried    that   distance  for  $21.50; 
in  1835  it  could  be  carried  for  $6.50.    That  single  fact 
gave  an  unprecedented  stimulus  to  the  growth  alike  of 
New  York  and  of  the  West.     In   1830  there  were  23 
miles  of  railroad  in  the  United  States;  in  1836  there 
were    1273    miles.     During   the    same    six  years   the 
steamboat  tonnage  on  our  Western  rivers  increased 
nearly  sixfold,  and  the  cotton  crop  in  the  Southwestern 
states  was  doubled,  while  the  price  of  raw  cotton  rose 
from  ten  to  twenty  cents  a  pound.     Such  sudden  and 
surprising  changes  quite  disturbed  people's  conceptions 
of  value  and   bewildered  them  in   their  calculations. 
The  great  West  began  to  seem  an  El  Dorado,  and 
so  long  as  desired  land  was  in  some  new  region,  it 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  345 

acquired  an  imaginary  value,  without  much  reference 
to  its  real  relations  to  the  development  of  the  country, 
which,  of  course,  time  alone  could  disclose.  The  valu 
ation  of  real  estate  in  Mobile  in  1831  was  little  more 
than  a  million  dollars;  in  1837  it  was  more  than  27 
millions;  in  1846  it  had  shrunk  to  less  than  9  millions. 
Assuming  that  the  increase  from  a  million  in  1831  to 
nearly  9  millions  in  1846  represents  real  growth,  we 
may  regard  the  greater  part  of  the  intervening  figure  of 
27  millions  as  representing  the  heated  fancies  of  men 
in  the  Atlantic  states  and  in  Europe  anxious  to  invest 
their  money  where  it  could  make  them  suddenly  rich. 
The  extent  of  the  mania  in  Europe  was  indicated  by 
the  striking  fact  that  although  between  1830  and  1837 
we  bought  from  foreign  countries  $140,000,000  worth 
of  merchandise  in  excess  of  what  we  sold  to  them,  we 
received  from  them  at  the  same  time  $45,000,000  in 
specie  in  excess  of  what  we  paid  to  them.  The  ac 
count  was  balanced  by  the  shares  taken  by  European 
capitalists  in  American  enterprises. 

This  rage  for  speculation  led  to  immense  purchases 
of  Western  public  lands.  At  that  time  any  one  who 
chose  could  buy  these  lands  at  the  fixed  price  of  $1.25 
per  acre,  whether  he  intended  to  settle  upon  them  or 
not.  Speculators  began  buying  extensive  tracts  in 
order  to  sell  them  at  a  greatly  advanced  price.  Be 
tween  1820  and  1829  the  annual  sales  of  public  lands 
by  the  United  States  government  averaged  about 
$1,300,000.  Between  1830  and  1834  they  averaged 
from  3  to  5  millions.  In  1835  they  leaped  up  to  15 
millions,  and  in  1836  to  25  millims.  The  money 
spent  in  buying  these  remote  unimproved  lands,  and 
in  taking  stock  in  railroads  projected  for  reaching 


346  HARRISON,   TYLER 

them,  was  thus  abstracted  from  the  ordinary  and  safe 
occupations  of  industry  and  commerce.  There  was  a 
great  demand  for  ready  money,  and  in  the  prevailing 
spirit  of  boundless  confidence  it  was  met  by  an  enor 
mous  increase  of  banks  and  bank  credits.  Between 
1830  and  1836  the  banking  capital  of  the  United 
States  rose  from  60  to  250  millions,  the  loans  and  dis 
counts  from  200  to  450  millions,  and  the  note  circula 
tion  from  60  to  140  millions.  Thus  the  elements  of  a 
prodigious  commercial  crisis  were  all  at  hand.  There 
was  the  wholesale  dealing  in  property  that  had  only 
fictitious  values;  there  was  the  wholesale  creation  of 
indebtedness,  and  the  attempt  to  pay  it,  Micawber- 
like,  with  paper  promises  to  pay.  Perhaps  Jackson's 
withdrawal  of  the  government  deposits  from  the 
United  States  Bank,  and  distribution  of  them  among 
fifty  state  banks,  may  have  helped  to  increase  the  mania 
for  speculation  ;  but  it  is  now  apparent  that  the  madness 
was  already  beyond  control  and  fast  hurrying  to  a  crisis. 

A  far  worse  measure,  for  which  both  parties  in  Con 
gress  were  responsible,  and  which  Jackson  ought  to 
have  vetoed,  was  the  distribution  of  the  surplus.  The 
extinction  of  the  national  debt  came  to  diminish  the 
outgo  just  as  the  great  sales  of  public  lands  came  to 
swell  the  income;  and  so  in  1836  there  was  a  surplus 
°f  $37,000,000,  which  Congress  decided  to  divide 
among  the  states  and  pay  over  in  four  quarterly  instal 
ments,  beginning  on  New  Year's  of  1837.  The  pros 
pect  of  this  largess  simply  added  to  the  general  craze. 

By  the  summer  of  1836  the  bubble  had  been  blown 
to  such  dimensions  as  perhaps  had  not  been  seen  since 
the  celebrated  South  Sea  bubble  of  1720.  To  prick 
and  "explode  such  airy  nothings,  it  is  only  necessary 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  347 

that  a  few  purchasers  should  begin  to  awake  to  their 
delusion  and  a  few  creditors  should  begin  to  ask  for 
hard  cash.  By  1836  there  were  others  than  Martin 
Chuzzlewit  who  had  learned  to  their  cost  that  Alad 
din's  lamp  was  not  to  be  found  in  malarial  swamps  on 
the  Mississippi.  Just  then  there  was  a  creditor  who 
made  demands,  and  that  creditor  was  the  United 
States  government.  On  the  i  ith  of  July  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  issued  the  famous  "specie  circular," 
requiring  payments  for  public  lands  to  be  made  in 
specie.  Stringency  of  the  money  market  had  already 
begun  to  be  felt,  because  the  issue  of  paper  had  not 
kept  pace  with  the  feverish  demand.  Now  the  strin 
gency  increased  with  fearful  rapidity.  The  crash 
began  to  come  when  the  first  quarter  of  the  surplus 
was  paid  out  by  the  deposit  banks  in  January.  So 
large  a  sum  of  money  could  not  be  moved  without 
calling  in  loans  and  awakening  apprehension.  West 
ern  banks  began  calling  for  specie  to  pay  their  debts 
to  the  government;  confidence  died  out  in  Europe, 
and  gold  began  flowing  thither  to  balance  accounts. 
Prices  had  become  so  inflated,  and  money  so  hard  to 
get,  that  mobs  in  the  city  of  New  York  shouted  for 
cheap  food,  and  with  true  mob  logic  proceeded  to  de 
stroy  a  great  flour  warehouse  by  way  of  making  flour 
cheaper.  In  the  course  of  the  spring  there  was  a  col 
lapse  of  prices  and  a  collapse  of  credit.  All  over  the 
country  the  banks  suspended  payment;  great  houses 
and  little  houses  became  alike  insolvent ;  widows  and 
orphans  who  had  taken  stock  in  railroads  leading  to 
Eden  were  reduced  to  live  upon  chanty ;  coin  disap 
peared,  and  there  was  a  partial  return  to  barter ;  a  pair 
of  shoes  would  be  paid  for  in  soup  tickets  or  chips 


348  HARRISON,   TYLER 

receivable  for  drinks  of  whiskey;  in  some  places  men 
found  it  hard  to  get  work  on  any  terms. 

Such  in  its  main  outlines  was  the  crisis  of  1837.  A 
masterly  account  of  it  may  be  found  in  Shepard's  "Van 
Buren,"  a  little  book  which  seems  to  me  the  ablest  in 
all  that  excellent  series  of  American  Statesmen.  We 
have  had  greater,  more  brilliant,  more  interesting 
Presidents  than  Mr.  Van  Buren ;  but  we  have  never 
had  one  with  a  more  thorough  grasp  of  the  principles 
of  political  economy,  or  a  more  adequate  and  lucid 
conception  of  the  proper  sphere  and  duties  of  govern 
ment.  When  Mr.  Shepard  calls  his  message  to  Con 
gress  on  the  occasion  of  the  panic  one  of  the  greatest 
of  American  state  papers,  his  words  are  not  at  all  too 
strong.  It  was  natural  that  the  President  should  be 
made  the  scapegoat  for  the  sins  of  the  people.  The 
Whigs  had  predicted  mischief  from  the  overthrow  of 
the  national  bank.  People  now  attributed  the  panic 
to  that  cause  and  to  the  issue  of  the  specie  circular. 
The  mischief,  they  said,  was  the  work  of  government, 
and  now  government  must  cure  it.  A  few  strokes  of 
President  Jackson's  pen  had  wrought  all  the  evil,  and 
it  must  be  undone  by  a  few  strokes  from  President 
Van  Buren's.  A  new  bank  must  be  chartered,  the 
specie  circular  rescinded,  and  plenty  of  paper  issued. 
If  Van  Buren  had  yielded  to  this  popular  clamour,  the 
crisis  would  very  likely  have  proved  as  obstinate  as 
that  of  1873,  the  length  of  which  can  plainly  be  traced 
to  inconvertible  paper.  In  commerce  as  in  medicine, 
acute  mania  is  easier  to  deal  with  than  chronic  melan 
cholia.  Van  Buren  understood  that  the  disease  was 
not  one  which  government  could  cure,  and  he  set  this 
forth  with  admirable  courage  and  force  in  his  message. 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  349 

So  far  from  advocating  a  recharter  of  the  bank,  he  led 
in  the  establishment  of  the  present  subtreasury  system, 
by  which  the  government  is  completely  divorced  from 
banking.  This  was  the  great  achievement  of  his 
administration.  But  the  Whigs  had  naturally  taken 
advantage  of  the  troubles  to  raise  a  cry  for  paternal 
government,  and  for  the  moment  they  found  willing 
listeners  everywhere.  There  was  a  general  revolt 
against  the  hard-hearted  administration  which  had 
done  nothing  to  relieve  the  distress  of  the  people. 
For  the  single  purpose  of  defeating  Mr.  Van  Buren,  all 
differences  of  policy  were  subordinated.  In  the  Whig 
convention  at  Harrisburg,  which  met  on  the  4th  of 
December,  1839,  almost  a  year  before  the  election,  no 
platform  of  principles  was  adopted.  The  unformu- 
lated  platform  was,  "  Anything  to  beat  Van  Buren."  * 
It  was  now  the  turn  of  the  Whigs  to  appeal  to  the 
frontier  prejudices  of  the  West  against  the  aristocratic 
East  by  renominating  General  Harrison,  who  in  the 
days  of  Tecumseh  and  Tippecanoe  had  lived  in  a  log 
cabin  and  had  on  his  table  none  of  your  French  cham 
pagne,  but  good  hard  cider.  Naturally  Mr.  Tyler,  as 
a  leader  of  the  Southern  or  State  Rights  Whigs,  was 
nominated  for  the  vice-presidency.  In  the  uproarious 
campaign  that  followed  there  was  less  appeal  to  sober 
reason  and  a  more  prodigal  use  of  claptrap  than  in  any 
other  presidential  contest  in  our  history.  The  chief 

1 A  newspaper  clipping,  preserved  by  Dr.  Fiske,  commenting  on  the 
heavy  shower  that  fell  upon  "  Bunker  Hill  Day,"  tells  of  a  more  notable 
shower  that  drenched  the  procession  of  September  I7th,  1840,  "the  big 
gest  procession  up  to  that  date  seen  in  Boston,"  wetting  the  Whigs,  the 
correspondent  says,  "  from  one  end  of  the  line  to  the  other  "  ;  but  Stephen 
C.  Phillips  went  into  Faneuil  Hall  the  same  night  and  gave  the  sentiment, 
"  Any  rain  but  the  reign  of  Van  Buren." 


35°  HARRISON,   TYLER 

features  were  long  processions  in  which  log  cabins 
mounted  on  wheels  were  dragged  about  and  kegs  of 
hard  cider  were  broached,  while  in  stump  speeches  the 
heartless  Van  Buren  was  accused  of  having  a  silver  ser 
vice  on  his  table  and  otherwise  aping  British  manners. 
A  kind  of  lilliburlero  was  sung,  with  its  chorus :  — 

"  For  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too  —  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too ; 
And  with  them  we'll  beat  little  Van,  Van. 
Van  is  a  used-up  man ; 
And  with  them  we'll  beat  little  Van." 

Thus  borne  upon  a  wave  of  popular  excitement, 
"  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too  "  were  carried  to  the  White 
House.  There  were  234  electoral  votes  for  Harrison 
and  60  for  Van  Buren.  But  a  glance  at  the  figures 
of  the  popular  vote  shows  that  then,  as  always  in 
American  politics,  the  approach  to  equilibrium  was 
too  close  for  a  party  to  presume  too  much  upon  the  tri 
umph  of  the  moment.  Harrison's  vote  was  1,275,016; 
Van  Buren's  was  1,129,102;  and  there  was  a  third 
candidate,  James  Birney,  who  obtained  only  about 
7000  votes,  and  carried  no  state.  He  stood  for  the 
abolition  of  negro  slavery,  and  at  that  moment  counted 
for  little. 

The  inauguration  of  the  new  government  in  March, 
1841,  brought  with  it  some  surprises.  Perhaps  the 
only  distinct  pledge  to  the  people  during  the  clamorous 
canvass  had  been  the  promise  of  civil  service  reform. 
That  promise  had  been  definite  enough  to  induce  some 
Democrats  to  vote  for  the  Whig  candidates,  but  it 
now  appeared  that  the  Whig  idea  of  reform  agreed 
substantially  with  Jackson's;  it  was  summed  up  in 
"turning  the  rascals  out."  The  pressure  of  office- 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  351 

seekers  at  the  White  House  was  so  great  that  some 
good  people  thought  the  worry  and  turmoil  enough  to 
account  for  President  Harrison's  death.  However  that 
may  be,  the  true  cause  was  pneumonia.  He  died  on 
the  4th  of  April,  just  one  month  after  his  inaugura 
tion,  without  having  had  time  to  indicate  his  policy. 
Among  the  Northern  Whigs,  however,  there  was  little 
doubt  as  to  what  that  policy  ought  to  be.  Mr.  Clay 
was  their  real  leader,  and  they  regarded  General  Har 
rison  as  a  mere  figurehead  candidate,  selected  for  what 
is  called,  in  political  slang,  availability.  Doubtless  most 
people  at  the  North  who  voted  for  Harrison  did  so  in 
the  belief  that  his  election  meant  the  victory  of  Clay's 
theory  of  government  in  the  reestablishment  of  the 
national  bank  and  the  increase  of  tariff  duties.  Mr. 
Clay's  own  course,  immediately  after  the  inauguration, 
showed  so  plainly  that  he  regarded  the  election  as  his 
own  victory,  that  General  Harrison  felt  called  upon 
to  administer  a  rebuke.  "  You  seem  to  forget,  sir," 
said  he,  "that  it  is  I  who  am  President."  Harrison 
offered  Clay  the  Secretaryship  of  State,  and  when  Clay 
refused  it  because  he  preferred  to  stay  in  the  Senate, 
it  was  given  to  Daniel  Webster. 

But  whatever  President  Harrison's  policy  might 
have  been,  there  could  be  no  doubt  that  his  sudden 
death,  in  raising  Mr.  Tyler  to  the  presidency,  created 
an  unlooked-for  situation,  which  was  likely  to  rob 
Mr.  Clay  and  his  friends  of  the  fruits  of  their  victory. 
It  has  been  the  habit  of  Whig  writers  to  speak  of 
Mr.  Tyler  as  a  renegade,  and  to  slur  over  the  circum 
stances  of  his  candidacy  by  declaring  that  at  the  time 
of  his  nomination  his  views  on  public  questions,  and 
in  particular  on  the  bank,  were  little  known.  But  the 


35 2  HARRISON,   TYLER 

sketch  of  his  career  here  given  is  enough  to  show  that 
there  was  no  man  in  the  United  States  in  1840  whose 
opinions  had  been  more  clearly  or  more  boldly  de 
clared  ;  and  if  the  Whigs  had  sinned  in  nominating 
him,  they  certainly  had  sinned  with  their  eyes  open. 
In  the  ill-yoked  alliance  of  which  the  Whig  party  was 
born,  the  elements  of  a  fierce  quarrel  were  scarcely 
concealed,  and  the  removal  of  President  Harrison  was 
all  that  was  needed  to  kindle  the  flames  of  strife. 
"Tyler  dares  not  resist,"  said  Clay;  "I'll  drive  him 
before  me."  On  the  other  hand,  the  new  President 
declared,  "  I  pray  you  to  believe  that  my  back  is  to  the 
wall,  and  that,  while  I  shall  deplore  the  assaults,  I 
shall,  if  practicable,  beat  back  the  assailants ;  "  and  he 
was  as  good  as  his  word.  Congress  met  in  extra  ses 
sion,  May  31,  1841,  the  Senate  standing  28  Whigs  to 
22  Democrats,  the  House  133  Whigs  to  108  Demo 
crats.  In  his  opening  message  President  Tyler  briefly 
recounted  the  recent  history  of  the  United  States  Bank, 
the  subtreasury  system,  and  other  financial  schemes, 
and  ended  with  the  significant  words,  "  I  shall  be  ready 
to  concur  with  you  in  the  adoption  of  such  system 
as  you  may  propose,  reserving  to  myself  the  ultimate 
power  of  rejecting  any  measure  which  may,  in  my  view 
of  it,  conflict  with  the  Constitution,  or  otherwise  jeop 
ard  the  prosperity  of  the  country;  a  power  which  I 
could  not  part  with,  even  if  I  would,  but  which  I  will 
not  believe  any  act  of  yours  will  call  into  requisition." 
The  challenge  was  promptly  accepted  by  Congress. 
The  ground  was  cleared  for  action  by  a  bill  for  abol 
ishing  Van  Buren's  subtreasury  system,  which  passed 
both  houses  and  was  signed  by  the  President.  But 
an  amendment  offered  by  Mr.  Clay  for  the  repeal  of 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  353 

the  law  of  1836  regulating  the  deposits  in  the  state 
banks  was  defeated  by  the  votes  of  a  small  party,  led  by 
William  C.  Rives.  The  great  question  then  came  up. 
On  constitutional  grounds,  .Mr.  Tyler's  objection  to 
the  United  States  Bank  had  always  been  that  Con 
gress  had  no  power  to  create  such  a  corporation  within 
the  limits  of  a  state  without  the  consent  of  the  state, 
ascertained  beforehand.  He  did  not  deny,  however, 
the  power  of  Congress  to  establish  a  district  bank  for 
the  District  of  Columbia,  and,  provided  the  several 
states  should  consent,  there  seemed  to  be  no  reason 
why  this  district  bank  should  not  set  up  its  branch 
offices  all  over  the  country.  Mr.  Clay's  so-called  "  fis 
cal  bank"  bill  of  1841  did  not  make  proper  provision 
for  securing  the  assent  of  the  states,  and  on  that  ground 
Mr.  Rives  proposed  an  amendment,  substituting  a 
clause  of  a  bill  suggested  by  Thomas  Ewing,  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  to  the  effect  that  such  assent  should 
be  formally  secured.  Mr.  Rives's  amendment  was 
supported  not  only  by  several  so-called  "  State  Rights 
Whigs,"  but  also  by  Senators  Richard  H.  Bayard  and 
Rufus  Choate,  and  other  friends  of  Mr.  Webster.  If 
adopted,  its  effect  would  have  been  conciliatory,  and  it 
might  perhaps  have  averted  for  a  moment  the  rupture 
between  the  ill-yoked  allies.  The  Democrats,  well 
aware  of  this,  voted  against  the  amendment,  and  it  was 
lost.  The  bill  incorporating  the  Fiscal  Bank  of  the 
United  States  was  then  passed  by  both  houses,  and 
on  the  1 6th  of  August  was  vetoed  by  the  President. 
An  attempt  to  pass  the  bill  over  the  veto  failed  of 
the  requisite  two-thirds  majority. 

The  Whig   leaders   had    already  shown  a  disposi 
tion  to  entrap  the  President.     Before  the  passage  of 

2A 


354  HARRISON,   TYLER 

Mr.  Clay's  bill,  John  Minor  Botts  was  sent  to  the  White 
House  with  a  private  suggestion  for  a  compromise. 
Mr.  Tyler  refused  to  listen  to  the  suggestion  except 
with  the  understanding  that,  should  it  meet  with  his 
disapproval,  he  should  not  hear  from  it  again.  The 
suggestion  turned  out  to  be  a  proposal  that  Congress 
should  authorize  the  establishment  of  branches  of  the 
district  bank  in  any  state  of  which  the  legislature  at 
its  very  next  session  should  not  expressly  refuse  its 
consent  to  any  such  proceeding ;  and  that,  moreover, 
in  case  the  interests  of  the  public  should  seem  to 
require  it,  even  such  express  refusal  might  be  disre 
garded  and  overridden.  By  this  means  the  obnoxious 
institution  might  first  be  established  in  the  Whig 
states,  and  then  forced  upon  the  Democratic  states 
in  spite  of  themselves.  The  President  indignantly 
rejected  the  suggestion  as  "  a  contemptible  subterfuge, 
behind  which  he  would  not  skulk."  The  device 
nevertheless  became  incorporated  in  Mr.  Clay's  bill, 
and  an  impression  got  abroad  that  it  was  put  there  in 
order  to  smooth  the  way  for  the  President  to  adopt  the 
measure,  but  that  in  his  unreasonable  obstinacy  he 
refused  to  avail  himself  of  the  opportunity.  After  his 
veto  of  August  1 6  these  tortuous  methods  were 
renewed.  Messengers  went  to  and  fro  between  the 
President  and  members  of  his  cabinet  on  the  one  hand 
and  leading  Whig  members  of  Congress  on  the  other, 
conditional  assurances  were  translated  into  the  indica 
tive  mood,  whispered  messages  were  magnified  and 
distorted,  and  presently  appeared  upon  the  scene  an 
outline  of  a  bill  that  it  was  assumed  the  President 
would  sign.  This  new  measure  was  known  as  the 
"  fiscal  corporation  "  bill.  Like  the  fiscal  bank  bill,  it 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  355 

created  a  bank  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  with 
branches  throughout  the  states,  and  it  made  no  proper 
provision  for  the  consent  of  the  states.  The  President 
had  admitted  that  a  "fiscal  agency"  of  the  United 
States  government,  established  in  Washington  for  the 
purpose  of  collecting,  keeping,  and  disbursing  the 
public  revenue,  was  desirable  if  not  indispensable  ;  a 
regular  bank  of  discount,  engaged  in  commercial  trans 
actions  throughout  the  states,  and  having  the  United 
States  government  as  its  principal  shareholder  and 
federal  officers  exerting  a  controlling  influence  upon 
its  directorship,  was  an  entirely  different  affair,  some 
thing  in  his  opinion  neither  desirable  nor  permissible. 
In  the  "  fiscal  corporation  "  bill  an  attempt  was  made 
to  hoodwink  the  President  and  the  public  by  a  pretence 
of  forbidding  discounts  and  loans,  and  limiting  the 
operations  of  the  fiscal  agency  exclusively  to  exchanges. 
While  this  project  was  maturing,  the  Whig  newspapers 
fulminated  with  threats  against  the  President  in  case 
he  should  persist  in  his  course ;  private  letters  warned 
him  of  plots  to  assassinate  him ;  and  Mr.  Clay  in  the 
Senate  referred  to  his  resignation  in  1836,  and  asked 
why,  if  constitutional  scruples  again  hindered  him 
from  obeying  the  will  of  the  people,  did  he  not  now 
resign  his  lofty  position  and  leave  it  for  those  who 
could  be  more  compliant  ?  To  this  it  was  aptly  replied 
by  Mr.  Rives  that  "the  President  was  an  independent 
branch  of  the  government  as  well  as  Congress,  and  was 
not  called  upon  to  resign  because  he  differed  in  opinion 
with  them."  Some  of  the  Whigs  seem  really  to  have 
hoped  that  such  a  storm  could  be  raised  as  would 
browbeat  the  President  into  resigning,  whereby  the 
government  would  be  temporarily  left  in  the  hands  of 


356  HARRISON,   TYLER 

William  L.  Southard,  then  president/^*?  tempore  of  the 
Senate.  But  Mr.  Tyler  was  neither  to  be  hoodwinked 
nor  bullied.  The  "  fiscal  corporation  "  bill  was  passed 
by  the  Senate  on  Saturday,  September  4,  1841  ;  on 
Thursday,  the  Qth,  the  President's  veto  message  was 
received;  on  Saturday,  the  nth,  Thomas  Ewing, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  John  Bell,  Secretary  of  War, 
George  E.  Badger,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  John  J. 
Crittenden,  Attorney-general,  and  Francis  Granger, 
Postmaster-general,  resigned  their  places.  The  adjourn 
ment  of  Congress  had  been  fixed  for  Monday,  the  i3th, 
and  it  was  hoped  that,  suddenly  confronted  by  a  unani 
mous  resignation  of  the  cabinet  and  confused  by  want 
of  time  in  which  to  appoint  a  new  cabinet,  the  Presi 
dent  would  give  up  the  game.  But  the  resignation 
was  not  unanimous,  for  Daniel  Webster,  Secretary  of 
State,  remained  at  his  post ;  and  on  Monday  morning 
the  President  offered  to  the  Senate  for  confirmation  the 
names  of  Walter  Forward  of  Pennsylvania  for  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury;  John  McLean  of  Ohio  for 
Secretary  of  War,  Abel  P.  Upshur  of  Virginia  for 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Hugh  S.  Legare  of  South 
Carolina  for  Attorney-general,  and  Charles  A.  Wick- 
liffe  of  Kentucky  for  Postmaster-general.  These  ex 
cellent  appointments  were  duly  confirmed. 

Whether  the  defection  of  Mr.  Webster  at  this 
moment  would  have  been  so  fatal  to  the  President  as 
some  of  the  Whigs  were  inclined  to  believe  may  well 
be  doubted ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  his  adhe 
rence  to  the  President  was  of  great  value.  By  remain 
ing  in  the  cabinet  Mr.  Webster  showed  himself  too 
clear-sighted  to  contribute  to  a  victory  of  which  the 
whole  profit  would  be  reaped  by  his  rival,  Mr.  Clay ; 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  357 

and  the  President  was  glad  to  retain  his  hold  upon  so 
strong  an  element  in  the  North  as  that  which  Mr. 
Webster  represented.  Some  of  the  leading  Whig 
members  of  Congress  now  issued  addresses  to  the 
people,  in  which  they  loudly  condemned  the  conduct 
of  the  President  and  declared  that "  all  political  connec 
tion  between  them  and  John  Tyler  was  at  an  end  from 
that  day  forth."  It  was  open  war  between  the  two 
departments  of  government.  Only  a  few  members  of 
Congress,  commonly  known  as  "  the  corporal's  guard," 
really  recognized  Mr.  Tyler  as  their  leader;  but  the 
Democratic  members  came  to  his  support  as  an  ally 
against  the  Whigs.  The  state  elections  of  1841 
showed  some  symptoms  of  a  reaction  in  favour  of  the 
President's  views,  for  in  general  the  Whigs  lost  ground 
in  them.  As  the  spectre  of  the  crisis  of  1837  faded 
away  in  the  distance,  the  people  began  to  recover  from 
the  sudden  and  overmastering  impulse  that  had  swept 
the  country  in  1840,  and  the  popular  enthusiasm  for 
the  bank  soon  died  away.  Mr.  Tyler  had  really  won 
a  victory  of  the  first  magnitude,  as  was  conclusively 
shown  in  1844,  when  the  presidential  platform  of  the 
Whigs  was  careful  to  make  no  allusion  whatever  to 
the  bank.  On  this  crucial  question  the  doctrines  of 
paternal  government  had  received  a  crushing  and  per 
manent  defeat.  In  the  next  session  of  Congress  the 
strife  with  the  President  was  renewed,  but  it  was  now 
tariff,  not  bank,  that  furnished  the  subject  of  discus 
sion.  The  lowering  of  duties  by  the  compromise 
tariff  of  1833  had  now  diminished  the  revenue  until 
it  was  insufficient  to  meet  the  expenses  of  government. 
The  Whigs  accordingly  carried  through  Congress  a 
bill  continuing  the  protective  duties  of  1833,  an<^  Pro~ 


358  HARRISON,   TYLER 

viding  that  the  surplus  revenue,  which  was  thus  sure 
soon  to  accumulate,  should  be  distributed  among  the 
states.  But  the  compromise  act  of  1833,  in  which  Mr. 
Tyler  had  played  an  important  part,  had  provided  that 
the  protective  policy  should  come  to  an  end  in  1842. 
Both  on  this  ground,  and  because  of  the  provisions 
for  distributing  the  surplus,  the  President  vetoed  the 
new  bill.  Congress  then  devised  and  passed  another 
bill,  providing  for  a  tariff  "  for  revenue,  with  incidental 
protection,"  but  still  contemplating  a  distribution  of 
the  surplus  if  there  should  be  any.  The  President 
vetoed  this  bill.  Congress  received  the  veto  message 
with  indignation,  and  on  the  motion  of  John  Quincy 
Adams  it  was  referred  to  a  committee,  which  con 
demned  it  as  an  unwarrantable  assumption  of  power, 
and  after  a  caustic  summary  of  Mr.  Tyler's  acts  since 
his  accession  to  office,  concluded  with  a  reference  to 
impeachment.  This  report  called  forth  from  the  Pres 
ident  a  formal  protest;  but  the  victory  was  already 
his.  The  Whigs  were  afraid  to  go  before  the  country 
in  the  autumn  elections  with  the  tariff  question  unset 
tled,  and  the  bill  was  accordingly  passed  by  both  houses 
without  the  distributing  clause,  and  was  at  once  signed 
by  the  President.  As  a  parting-  menace,  the  distribut 
ing  clause  was  then  passed  in  a  separate  bill,  but  a 
"  pocket  veto "  sufficed  to  dispose  of  it.  Congress 
adjourned  August  31,  1842,  and  in  the  autumn  elections 
the  Whig  majority  of  25  in  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  gave  place  to  a  Democratic  majority  of  61. 

Here  our  story  must  for  the  present  stop,  with  the 
total  overthrow  of  the  Whig  doctrines  of  paternal  gov 
ernment.  As  the  net  result  of  twenty  years  of  politi 
cal  experience,  since  the  election  of  John  Quincy 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  359 

Adams  had  raised  new  political  issues,  we  find  the 
Whig  theory  everywhere  discomfited.  The  bank  was 
too  completely  dead  to  find  any  mourners.  The  pro 
tective  tariff  was  reduced  to  such  a  point  that  we  were 
abreast  with  England  in  the  march  toward  free  trade, 
and  our  foreign  commerce  was  beginning  to  rival  that 
of  England,  when  the  Civil  War  and  its  war  taxes  set 
us  back  for  a  while.  At  the  same  time  the  policy  of 
internal  improvements  remained,  as  it  still  remains,  on 
the  defensive.  Viewed  in  its  large  relations,  it  was  a 
noble  victory  for  the  sound  Democratic  doctrine  of 
"  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the 
people."  The  four  eminent  men  who  represented  this 
doctrine  were  Jackson,  Van  Buren,  Benton,  and  Blair. 
They  also  stood  for  the  Union,  against  all  separatist 
schemes,  as  strongly  and  devotedly  as  Webster  and 
Clay.  As  for  Tyler,  while  we  cannot  call  him  a 
great  man,  while  for  breadth  of  view  and  sound  grasp 
of  fundamental  principles  he  is  immeasurably  below 
Van  Buren,  at  the  same  time  he  is  not  so  trivial  a 
personage  as  his  detractors  would  have  us  believe. 
He  was  honest  and  courageous,  and  in  the  defeat  of 
Mr.  Clay's  theory  of  government  he  played  an  impor 
tant  and  useful  part.  If  he  is  small  as  compared  with 
Jackson  and  Van  Buren,  he  is  great  as  compared  with 
Pierce  and  Buchanan. 

We  cannot  here  consider  the  close  of  Mr.  Tyler's 
presidency,  because  that  would  introduce  a  new  set  of 
considerations,  and  our  time  is  now  at  an  end.  When 
the  question  of  the  annexation  of  Texas  came  into  the 
foreground,  the  lines  were  speedily  drawn  between 
North  and  South,  as  they  had  not  been  drawn  since 
1820.  Mr.  Tyler  and  his  State  Rights  Whigs  had 


360  HARRISON,   TYLER 

already  broken  with  the  Northern  Whigs.  Now  on  the 
Texas  question  they  allied  themselves  with  the  Demo 
crats,  thus  following  Calhoun,  who  had  already,  in  1838, 
after  Jackson  was  out  of  the  way,  thought  it  safest  to 
ally  himself  with  that  party.  It  was  natural  that  all 
those  who  wished  to  defer  the  solution  of  the  slave'ry 
question  should  sooner  or  later  come  to  join  the  party 
that  construed  the  Constitution  as  it  had  been  con 
strued  by  the  elder  Tyler  and  the  elder  Harrison  in 
the  convention  of  1788.  It  was  this  that  took  the 
Tyler  men  over  to  the  Democrats  in  1844.  In  thus 
going  over,  they  altered  for  the  worse  the  character 
of  the  Democratic  party.  In  1844  Mr.  Van  Buren 
would  naturally  have  been  the  Democratic  candidate 
for  the  presidency,  but  because  he  bravely  opposed  the 
annexation  of  Texas  as  a  reenforcement  to  the  slave 
power,  he  was  unable  to  secure  the  nomination.  This 
was  because  Mr.  Tyler's  State  Rights  Whigs  had  joined 
the  Democrats.  As  Lord  Dundreary  would  say,  the 
tail  had  now  become  able  to  wag  the  dog.  From 
1844  the  Democratic  party,  led  by  Mr.  Polk,  the  first 
"dark  horse,"  came  to  be  more  and  more  a  Southern 
party.  The  Northern  Whigs,  having  seen  all  their 
economic  principles  defeated  by  Mr.  Tyler,  soon  came 
to  have  nothing  in  common  save  the  disposition  to 
save  the  Union  by  concessions  to  the  South ;  and  on 
this  plan  of  campaign  they  met  with  their  final  defeat 
in  1852.  At  the  same  time  the  Democrats  became 
more  and  more  dependent  upon  Southern  support  as 
they  lost  their  Northern  leaders.  In  1848  we  see  Mr. 
Van  Buren  a  candidate  for  the  presidency  upon  a 
free-soil  platform.  By  1856  we  see  Benton  dubious 
and  Blair  a  Republican.  Between  1850  and  1860 


AND   THE   WHIG   COALITION  361 

many  of  the  best  and  most  vigorous  elements  in  the 
old  Democratic  party  of  Jackson  and  Van  Buren  had 
gone  over  to  the  new  Republican  party ;  just  as  since 
1876  we  have  seen  many  of  the  most  characteristic 
elements  of  the  old  Republican  party  of  Lincoln  and 
Sumner  going  over  to  the  Democrats.  Whatever  may 
be  the  merits  of  the  Republican  party  of  to-day,  it  is 
no  more  the  party  of  Lincoln  and  Sumner  than  the 
Federalist  party  of  1812  was  the  party  of  Hamilton 
and  John  Adams.  Just  so  with  the  Democratic  party 
forty  years  ago.  By  the  subtraction  of  its  original 
leaders,  the  Democratic  party  of  Pierce  and  Buchanan 
came  to  be  something  quite  different  from  the  Demo 
cratic  party  of  Jackson  and  Van  Buren.  It  came  to 
be  a  mere  servant  of  the  slave  power.  The  danger 
which  menaces  the  Republican  party  to-day  is  the 
danger  that  it  may  fall  under  the  control  of  monopo 
lists.  Should  it  turn  out  to  be  so,  the  history  of 
American  politics  points  to  the  probable  result.  That 
history  shows  with  clearness  how  moderately  the  evo 
lution  of  society  goes  on  where  the  popular  will  finds 
unhampered  expression.  When  political  parties  go  in 
quest  of  strange  gods  we  cast  them  forth  into  outer 
darkness,  and  go  on  our  way  rejoicing.  It  is  well  that 
this  is  so,  for  so  long  as  this  can  be  done,  we  may  be 
sure  that  we  are  a  free  people. 


IX 

DANIEL   WEBSTER 

AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION 


IX 

DANIEL  WEBSTER 

AND  THE   SENTIMENT  OF  UNION 

WHEN  the  little  town  of  Hampton,  on  the  coast  be 
tween  the  Merrimac  and  Piscataqua  rivers,  was  settled 
in  1639  by  Antinomians  who  had  found  cold  welcome 
at  Boston,  among  the  company  was  one  Thomas  Web 
ster,  concerning  whom  little  is  known.  A  hundred 
years  later  we  find  his  family  living  a  few  miles  inland, 
at  Kingston,  and  there  Ebenezer  Webster  was  born 
in  1739.  Late  in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  Ebenezer 
Webster  enlisted  in  the  partisan  troop  celebrated  as 
Rogers's  "  Rangers,"  and  after  some  hard  service  and 
wild  adventure  returned  home  at  the  peace  of  1763 
with  the  rank  of  captain.  He  was  soon  after  married, 
and  with  a  company  of  friends  and  neighbours  went 
to  found  the  town  of  Salisbury,  deep  in  the  wilderness 
by  the  upper  waters  of  the  Merrimac  and  in  the  shadow 
of  Kearsarge  Mountain.  Captain  Webster's  log  house 
was  built  on  a  hill  at  the  northern  end  of  the  township, 
and  between  that  hill  and  Montreal,  two  hundred  miles 
distant,  there  was  nothing  but  the  unbroken  pine  for 
est,  with  its  prowling  Indians  and  wolves.  In  1775 
the  neighbourhood  had  become  more  populous,  so 
that  when  the  stout  captain  went  to  join  the  Conti 
nental  army  he  took  with  him  two  hundred  men.  He 
served  in  almost  every  campaign  of  the  Revolutionary 
War,  and  rose  to  the  rank  of  colonel.  At  Bennington 

365 


366  DANIEL   WEBSTER 

he  was  one  of  the  foremost  in  storming  the  Ger 
man  intrenchments  ;  at  West  Point,  on  the  night  of 
the  dreadful  day  which  saw  Benedict  Arnold's  flight 
to  the  Vulture,  when  doubt  and  misgiving  were  every 
where,  he  was  placed  in  command  of  the  guard  at 
headquarters,  and  Washington  said  to  him,  "  Colonel 
Webster,  I  believe  I  can  trust  you"  In  1783  this 
veteran  of  two  wars  became  owner  of  the  Elms  Farm 
in  Salisbury,  and  lived  there  until  his  death,  in  1806. 
He  served  as  representative  and  senator  in  the  New 
Hampshire  legislature,  and  as  judge  in  the  Court  of 
Common  Pleas.  In  1788  he  was  member  of  the  state 
convention  which  ratified  the  federal  Constitution. 
At  the  first  meeting  of  that  convention,  which 
adjourned  without  a  vote,  he  was  bound,  like  the 
majority  of  the  delegates,  by  instructions  from  his 
townsmen,  to  oppose  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution. 
Before  the  second  meeting  he  sought  and  obtained 
permission  to  act  according  to  his  own  judgment; 
and  when  the  vote  was  about  to  be  taken  he  made 
the  following  brief  but  conclusive  speech :  "  Mr. 
President,  I  have  listened  to  the  arguments  for  and 
against  the  Constitution.  I  am  convinced  such  a  gov 
ernment  as  that  Constitution  will  establish,  if  adopted 
—  a  government  acting  directly  on  the  people  of  the 
states  —  is  necessary  for  the  common  defence  and  the 
common  welfare.  It  is  the  only  government  which 
will  enable  us  to  pay  off  the  national  debt  —  the  debt 
which  we  owe  for  the  Revolution,  and  which  we  are 
bound  in  honour  fully  and  fairly  to  discharge.  Be 
sides,  I  have  followed  the  lead  of  Washington  through 
seven  years  of  war,  and  I  have  never  been  misled. 
His  name  is  subscribed  to  this  Constitution.  He 


AND  THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  •  367 

will  not  mislead  us  now.     I  shall  vote  for  its  adop 
tion"  (Curtis,  I.  10). 

Colonel  Webster  was  noted  for  manly  beauty  and 
noble  bearing,  for  tireless  industry,  broad  intelligence, 
and  tenacious  memory,  and  for  most  devoted  and  self- 
sacrificing  love  for  his  children.  Of  these  there  were 
five  by  the  first  wife,  who  died  in  1774  ;  and  five  by 
the  second  wife,  Abigail  Eastman,  a  lady  of  rare  intel 
ligence  and  strength  of  character.  The  youngest  son, 
Daniel,  was  born  on  the  i8th  of  January,  1782,  so  puny 
and  sickly  a  babe  that  it  was  thought  he  could  not 
live  to  grow  up.  As  a  lad  he  was  considered  too  deli 
cate  for  hard  work  on  the  farm,  and  was  accordingly 
allowed  a  great  deal  of  time  for  play.  Much  of  this 
leisure  he  spent  in  fishing  and  hunting,  or  in  roaming 
about  the  woods,  the  rest  in  reading.  He  never  could 
remember  when  he  learned  to  read.  His  thirst  for 
knowledge  was  insatiable ;  he  read  every  book  that 
came  within  reach,  and  conned  his  favourite  authors 
till  he  knew  them  by  heart.  In  May,  1796,  he  was 
sent  to  Exeter  Academy,  where  he  made  rapid  prog 
ress  with  his  studies,  but  was  so  overcome  by  shyness 
that  he  found  it  impossible  to  stand  up  and  "speak 
pieces "  before  his  schoolmates.  When  he  saw  so 
many  eyes  turned  toward  him.  the  words  would  not 
come,  the  master's  encouraging  remarks  only  added  to 
his  confusion,  and  he  would  go  away  and  cry  from 
vexation.  But  despite  this  timidity,  his  natural  gifts 
as  an  orator  had  already  begun  to  show  themselves. 
His  great,  dark,  lustrous  eyes  and  rich  voice,  with  its 
musical  inflections,  were  already  exerting  fascination 
upon  all  who  came  withrn  their  range.  Passing  team 
sters  would  stop  their  horses,  farmers  at  work  in 


368  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

the  field  would  pause,  sickle  in  hand,  to  hear  him 
recite  verses  from  the  Bible,  Dr.  Watts 's  hymns,  or 
passages  from  Addison  or  Pope.  Although  Ebenezer 
Webster  found  it  difficult,  by  unremitting  labour  and 
strictest  economy,  to  support  his  numerous  family,  he 
saw  such  signs  of  promise  in  Daniel  as  to  convince 
him  that  it  was  worth  while,  at  whatever  cost,  to  send 
him  to  college.  Accordingly,  in  February,  1 797,  he 
took  him  from  school,  in  order  to  hasten  his  prepara 
tory  studies  by  the  aid  of  a  private  tutor,  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Wood  of  Boscawen.  It  was  on  the  sleigh- 
ride  to  that  town,  as  they  were  toiling  up  a  mountain 
ous  road  through  drifted  snow,  that  Colonel  Webster 
informed  Daniel  of  his  plans.  The  sensitive,  warm 
hearted  boy,  who  had  hardly  dared  hope  for  such  good 
fortune  and  keenly  felt  the  sacrifice  it  involved,  laid 
his  head  upon  his  father's  shoulder  and  burst  into 
tears.  After  six  months  with  his  tutor,  he  had  learned 
enough  to  fulfil  the  slender  requirements  of  those 
days  for  admission  to  Dartmouth  College,  where  he 
was  duly  graduated  in  1801.  He  did  not  take  rank  at 
the  head  of  his  class,  but  it  was  observed  that  he  was 
capable  of  great  industry,  that  he  seized  an  idea  with 
surprising  quickness,  that  his  memory  was  prodigious, 
and  his  power  of  lucid  statement  unrivalled.  Along 
with  these  enviable  gifts  he  possessed  that  supreme 
poetic  quality  that  defies  analysis  but  is  at  once  recog 
nized  as  genius.  He  was  naturally,  therefore,  consid 
ered  by  tutors  and  fellow-students  the  most  remarkable 
man  in  the  college,  and  the  position  of  superiority  thus 
early  gained  was  easily  maintained  through  life  and 
wherever  he  was  placed.  .While  at  college  he  con 
quered  or  outgrew  his  boyish  shyness,  so  as  to  take 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  369 

pleasure  in  public  speaking,  and  his  eloquence  soon 
attracted  so  much  notice  that  in  1800  the  townspeople 
of  Hanover  selected  this  undergraduate  to  deliver  the 
Fourth  of  July  oration.  There  he  began  to  preach  that 
love  for  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  which  was  to 
form  his  chief  theme  throughout  life.  After  leaving 
college  he  went  into  a  lawyer's  office  in  Salisbury,  and 
began  studying  law ;  but  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
help  his  elder  brother  Ezekiel,  of  whom  he  was  devot 
edly  fond,  to  go  through  college,  and  this  made  it  nec 
essary  for  him  to  earn  money  by  teaching  in  a  country 
school.  In  July,  1804,  he  came  to  Boston  in  search  of 
employment  in  some  office  where  he  might  complete 
his  studies.  He  was  so  fortunate  as  to  find  favour  in 
the  eyes  of  Christopher  Gore,  just  returned  from  his 
mission  to  England.  In  Mr.  Gore's  office,  as  student 
and  clerk,  he  could  see  some  of  the  most  eminent  men 
in  New  England.  In  1805  he  went  to  Boscawen,  and 
in  two  years'  time  had  acquired  a  good  country  prac 
tice,  which  he  turned  over  to  his  brother  Ezekiel.  He 
now  removed  to  Portsmouth,  where  his  reputation 
grew  rapidly,  so  that  he  was  soon  considered  a  worthy 
antagonist  to  Jeremiah  Mason,  one  of  the  greatest 
lawyers  this  country  has  ever  produced.  In  June, 
1808,  he  married  Miss  Grace  Fletcher,  of  Hopkinton, 
New  Hampshire. 

His  first  important  political  pamphlet,  published 
that  year,  was  a  criticism  on  the  embargo.1  In  1812, 

1  In  connection  with  the  Embargo  that  aroused  such  wide  controversy  in 
New  England,  a  correspondent  called  Dr.  Fiske's  attention  to  a  jingle  that  was 
passed  from  one  to  another  of  the  wits  of  that  generation,  and  was  attributed 
by  some  to  Lucius  Manlius  Sargent.  It  ran  as  follows:  — 

"  Take  nothing  from  nothing  and  nothing  remains ; 

Who  votes  for  the  Embargo  is  a  fool  for  his  pains." 
2  B 


37°  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

in  a  speech  before  the  Washington  Benevolent  Society 
at  Portsmouth,  he  summarized  the  objections  of  the 
New  England  people  to  the  war  just  declared  against 
Great  Britain.  He  was  immediately  afterward  chosen 
delegate  to  a  convention  of  the  people  of  Rockingham 
County,  and  drew  up  the  so-called  "  Rockingham 
Memorial,"  addressed  to  President  Madison,  which 
contained  a  formal  protest  against  the  war.  In  the 
following  autumn  he  was  elected  to  Congress,  and  on 
taking  his  seat,  in  May,  1813,  he  was  placed  on  the 
Committee  on  Foreign  Relations.  His  first  step  in 
Congress  was  the  introduction  of  a  series  of  resolutions 
aimed  at  the  President,  and  calling  for  a 'statement 
of  the  time  and  manner  in  which  Napoleon's  pretended 
revocation  of  his  decrees  against  American  shipping 
had  been  announced  to  the  United  States.  His  first 
great  speech,  January  14,  1814,  was  in  opposition  to  the 
bill  for  encouraging  enlistments,  and  at  the  close  of 
that  year  he  opposed  Secretary  Monroe's  measures  for 
enforcing  what  was  known  as  the  "draft  of  1814." 
But  while  Mr.  Webster's  attitude  toward  the  adminis 
tration  was  that  of  the  Federalist  party  to  which  he 
belonged,  he  did  not  go  so  far  as  the  leaders  of  that 
party  in  New  England.  He  condemned  the  embargo 
as  more  harmful  to  ourselves  than  to  the  enemy,  as 
there  is  no  doubt  it  was ;  he  disapproved  the  policy  of 
invading  Canada,  and  maintained  that  our  wisest 
course  was  to  increase  the  strength  of  the  navy ;  and 
on  these  points  history  will  probably  judge  him  to 
have  been  correct.  But  in  his  opinion  that  the  war 
itself  was  unnecessary  and  injurious  to  the  country,  he 
was  probably,  like  most  New  Englanders  of  that  time, 
mistaken.  Could  he  have  foreseen  and  taken  into  the 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  371 

account  the  rapid  and  powerful  development  of  national 
feeling  in  the  United  States  which  the  war  called  forth, 
it  would  have  modified  his  view ;  for  it  is  clear  that  the 
war  party,  represented  by  Henry  Clay  and  his  friends, 
was  at  that  moment  the  truly  national  party,  and  Mr. 
Webster's  sympathies  were  then,  as  always,  in  favour  of 
the  broadest  nationalism,  and  entirely  opposed  to  every 
sort  of  sectional  or  particularist  policy.  This  broad 
national  spirit,  which  was  strong  enough  in  the  two 
Adamses  to  sever  their  connection  with  the  Federalists 
of  New  England,  led  Mr.  Webster  to  use  his  influence 
successfully  to  keep  New  Hampshire  out  of  the  Hart 
ford  convention.  In  the  I3th  Congress,  however,  we 
find  him  voting  191  times  on  the  same  side  with 
Timothy  Pickering,  and  only  4  times  on  the  opposite 
side.  Other  questions  were  discussed  besides  those 
relating  to  the  war.  In  this  and  the  next  Congress 
the  most  important  work  done  by  Mr.  Webster  was 
concerned  with  the  questions  of  currency  and  a 
national  bank.  He  did  good  service  in  killing  the 
pernicious  scheme  for  a  bank  endowed  with  the  power 
of  issuing  irredeemable  notes  and  obliged  to  lend 
money  to  the  government.  He  was  even  disposed  to 
condemn  outright  the  policy  of  allowing  the  govern 
ment  to  take  any  part  whatever  in  the  management  of 
the  bank.  He  also  opposed  a  protective  tariff,  but  by 
supporting  Mr.  Calhoun's  bill  for  internal  improve 
ments  he  put  himself  on  record  as  a  loose  construc- 
tionist.  In  the  light  of  subsequent  events  it  seems 
odd  to  find  Mr.  Calhoun  defending  the  policy  of  inter 
nal  improvements  on  the  ground  of  its  tendency  to 
consolidate  the  Union,  and  it  seems  odd  to  find  Mr. 
Webster  in  cordial  alliance  with  the  great  South 


372  DANIEL   WEBSTER 

Carolinian  upon  this  or  any  other  question.  But  it  is 
to  be  borne  in  mind  that,  owing  to  the  concessions 
made  to  slavery  in  the  federal  Constitution,  South 
Carolina  was  at  first  strongly  Federalist  in  her  politics, 
and  but  for  her  attitude  in  this  regard  it  is  not  at  all 
likely  that  the  Constitution  would  ever  have  been 
ratified.  It  was  the  prompt  action  of  South  Carolina 
in  1 788  that  killed  the  promising  scheme  of  the  Anti- 
federalists  of  Virginia,  headed  by  Patrick  Henry,  for  a 
separate  Southern  confederacy.  It  was  not  until  after 
1820  that  South  Carolina  started  upon  the  opposite 
course,  which  in  less  than  ten  years  was  to  carry  her 
to  the  verge  of  secession.  It  was  the  strength  of  the 
Northern  opposition  to  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a 
slave  state  that  first  alarmed  South  Carolina ;  and  her 
political  alliance  with  New  England  was  broken  when 
the  latter  section  of  the  country  began  to  declare  itself 
in  favour  of  high  tariffs.  But  in  1816  it  was  quite 
natural  that,  on  a  question  concerning  the  general 
powers  of  the  federal  government,  Mr.  Calhoun  and 
Mr.  Webster  should  be  found  on  the  same  side.  In 
the  course  of  this  session  of  Congress  the  cantankerous 
Randolph  saw  fit  to  defy  Mr.  Webster  to  mortal  com 
bat  for  words  spoken  in  debate ;  but  the  challenge  was 
declined  with  grim  humour.  Mr.  Webster  said  that  he 
did  not  feel  called  upon  to  expose  his  life  at  the  request 
of  any  other  man  who  might  be  willing  to  risk  his 
own ;  but  he  should  always  "  be  prepared  to  repel  in  a 
suitable  manner  the  aggression  of  any  man"  who 
should  venture  to  "presume  upon  such  a  refusal." 
Mr.  Randolph  had  thus  no  alternative  but  to  ignore 
this  very  significant  hint,  and  gracefully  declare  his 
nice  sense  of  honour  quite  satisfied. 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  373 

At  the  expiration  of  his  second  term  in  Congress, 
Mr.  Webster  retired  for  a  while  to  private  life.  He 
was  in  great  need  of  money,  and,  moving  from  Ports 
mouth  to  Boston  about  this  time,  he  soon  found  him 
self  earning  in  his  profession  not  less  than  $20,000  a 
year.  One  of  the  first  cases  upon  which  he  was  now 
engaged  was  the  famous  Dartmouth  College  affair. 
While  Mr.  Webster's  management  of  this  case  went 
far  toward  placing  him  at  the  head  of  the  American 
bar,  the  political  significance  of  its  decision  was  such 
as  to  make  it  an  important  event  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States.  It  shows  Mr.  Webster  not  only  as  a 
great  constitutional  lawyer  and  consummate  advocate, 
but  also  as  a  powerful  champion  of  federalism.  In 
its  origin  Dartmouth  College  was  a  missionary  school 
for  Indians,  founded  in  1754  by  the  Rev.  Eleazar 
Wheelock,  at  Lebanon,  Connecticut.  After  a  few 
years,  funds  were  raised  by  private  subscription  for 
the  purpose  of  enlarging  the  school  into  a  college, 
and  as  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth  had  been  one  of  the 
chief  contributors,  Dr.  Wheelock  appointed  him  and 
other  persons  trustees  of  the  property.  The  site  of 
the  college  was  fixed  in  New  Hampshire,  and  a  royal 
charter  in  1769  created  it  a  perpetual  corporation. 
The  charter  recognized  Wheelock  as  founder,  and 
appointed  him  president,  with  power  to  name  his  suc 
cessor,  subject  to  confirmation  by  the  trustees.  Dr. 
Wheelock  devised  the  presidency  to  his  son  John 
Wheelock,  who  accordingly  became  his  successor. 
The  charter,  in  expressly  forbidding  the  exclusion  of 
any  person  on  account  of  his  religious  belief,  reflected 
the  broad  and  tolerant  disposition  of  Dr.  Wheelock, 
who  was  a  liberal  Presbyterian,  and  as  such  had  been 


374  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

engaged  in  prolonged  controversy  with  that  famous 
representative  of  the  strictest  Congregationalism,  Dr. 
Joseph  Bellamy.  In  1793,  Bellamy's  pupil,  Nathaniel 
Niles,  became  a  trustee  of  Dartmouth,  and  between 
him  and  John  Wheelock  the  old  controversy  was 
revived  and  kept  up  with  increasing  bitterness  for 
several  years,  dividing  the  board  of  trustees  into  two 
hostile  parties.  At  length,  in  1809,  the  party  opposed 
to  President  Wheelock  gained  a  majority  in  the  board, 
and  thus  became  enabled  in  various  ways  to  balk  and 
harass  the  president,  until  in  1815  the  quarrel  broke 
forth  into  a  war  of  pamphlets  and  editorial  articles  that 
convulsed  the  whole  state  of  New  Hampshire.  The 
Congregational  Church  was  at  that  time  the  estab 
lished  church  in  New  Hampshire,  supported  by  taxa 
tion,  and  the  Federalist  party  found  its  strongest 
adherents  among  the  members  of  that  church.  Natu 
rally,  therefore,  the  members  of  other  churches,  and 
persons  opposed  on  general  principles  to  the  estab 
lishment  of  a  state  church,  were  inclined  to  take  sides 
with  the  Republicans.  In  1815  President  Wheelock 
petitioned  the  legislature  for  a  committee  to  investi 
gate  the  conduct  of  the  trustees,  whom  he  accused  of 
various  offences,  from  intolerance  in  matters  of  reli 
gion  to  improper  management  of  the  funds.  Thus  the 
affair  soon  became  a  party  question,  in  which  the 
Federalists  upheld  the  trustees,  while  the  Republi 
cans  sympathized  with  the  president.  The  legisla 
ture  granted  the  petition  for  a  committee,  but  the 
trustees  forthwith,  in  a  somewhat  too  rash  spirit  of 
defiance,  deposed  Mr.  Wheelock  and  chose  a  new 
president,  the  Rev.  Francis  Brown.  In  the  ensuing 
state  election  Mr.  Wheelock  and  his  sympathizers 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  375 

went  over  to  the  Republicans,  who  thus  succeeded  in 
electing  their  candidate  for  governor,  with  a  majority 
of  the  legislature.  In  June,  1816,  the  new  legislature 
passed  an  act  reorganizing  the  college,  and  a  new 
board  of  trustees  was  at  once  appointed  by  the  gov 
ernor.  Judge  Woodward,  secretary  of  the  old  board, 
went  over  to  the  new  board  and  became  its  secretary, 
taking  with  him  the  college  seal.  The  new  board  pro 
ceeded  to  expel  the  old  board,  which  forthwith  brought 
suit  against  Judge  Woodward  in  an  action  of  trover 
for  the  college  seal.  The  case  was  tried  in  May,  1817, 
with  those  two  great  lawyers,  Jeremiah  Mason  and 
Jeremiah  Smith,  as  counsel  for  the  plaintiffs.  It  was 
then  postponed  till  September,  when  Mr.  Webster  was 
secured  by  the  plaintiffs  as  an  additional  counsel.  The 
plaintiffs  contended  that  in  the  case  of  a  corporation 
chartered  for  private  uses,  any  alleged  misconduct  of 
the  trustees  was  properly  a  question  for  the  courts, 
and  not  for  the  legislature,  which  in  meddling  with 
such  a  question  plainly  transcended  its  powers.  Their 
chief  reliance  was  upon  this  point,  but  they  contended 
that  the  act  of  legislature  reorganizing  the  college  was 
an  act  impairing  the  obligation  of  a  contract,  and 
therefore  violated  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  Nothing  is  more  interesting  or  more  signifi 
cant  in  the  history  of  the  case  than  the  fact  that 
neither  of  the  three  great  lawyers  who  represented  the 
plaintiffs  at  first  attached  much  importance  to  this 
second  point,  which  to-day  seems  so  obvious  that  we 
only  wonder  how  any  one  could  ever  for  a  moment 
have  hesitated  about  urging  it.  One  could  hardly 
find  anywhere  a  more  forcible  illustration  of  the 
change  which  seventy  years  have  wrought  in  our 


DANIEL  WEBSTER 

conception  of  the  sphere  and  duties  of  the  federal 
government;  and  one  of  the  most  potent  factors  in 
that  change  was  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in 
this  very  case  of  Dartmouth  College.  The  state  court 
at  Exeter  decided  against  the  plaintiffs,  and  the  deci 
sion  would  have  been  final  had  it  not  been  for  the 
point  which  at  first  they  had  approached  so  gingerly, 
but  which  now  enabled  them  to  carry  up  their  case  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

It  now  remained  to  be  seen  whether  the  federal 
tribunal  would  admit  the  position  of  the  plaintiffs, 
or  dismiss  the  case  for  want  of  jurisdiction.  As  the  elder 
counsel  were  unable  to  go  to  Washington,  it  fell  to 
Mr.  Webster  to  conduct  the  case,  which  was  tried  in 
March,  1818.  He  argued  that  the  charter  of  Dart 
mouth  College  created  a  private  corporation  for  ad 
ministering  a  charity;  that  in  the  administration  of 
such  uses  the  trustees  have  a  recognized  right  of 
property ;  that  the  grant  of  such  a  charter  is  a  contract 
between  the  sovereign  power  and  the  grantees,  and 
descends  to  their  successors,  and  that  therefore  the 
act  of  the  New  Hampshire  legislature,  in  taking  away 
the  government  from  one  board  of  trustees  and  con 
ferring  it  upon  another,  was  a  violation  of  contract, 
and  as  such  an  infringement  of  the  federal  Constitu 
tion.  These  legal  points  were  argued  by  Mr.  Web 
ster  with  masterful  cogency,  and  reenforced  by 
illustrations  and  allusions  well  calculated  to  appeal 
to  the  Federalist  sympathies  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 
For,  besides  the  legal  interpretation,  there  was  an 
important  political  side  to  the  question  which  recom 
mended  it  to  the  earnest  consideration  of  the  great 
judge,  who,  in  building  up  a  new  system  of  federal 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF  UNION  377 

jurisprudence  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  Eng 
lish  precedents,  was  often  to  some  extent  obliged  to 
make  law  as  well  as  declare  it.  Should  the  legislative 
action  of  a  state  upon  its  own  citizens  be  final,  so  that 
there  should  be  no  secure  shelter  for  vested  rights 
against  the  unchecked  caprice  of  a  mere  majority 
swayed  by  some  momentary  impulse ;  or  was  the 
authority  of  the  federal  government  competent  to 
insure  that  the  state,  in  dealing  with  individuals  or 
with  private  corporations,  should  recognize  certain 
fundamental  principles  of  law  as  sacred  and  unassail 
able  ?  The  latter  alternative  was,  of  course,  the  one 
for  which  our  federal  Constitution  was  designed  to 
provide,  but  incalculable  consequences  depended  upon 
the  extent  of  jurisdiction  which,  in  accordance  with 
that  instrument,  might  be  claimed  by  the  federal  courts. 
Here  was  a  question  that  touched  the  master  chord 
in  the  natures  alike  of  the  mighty  advocate  and  of 
the  mighty  judge,  and  as  the  one  spoke  and  the  other 
listened,  it  must  have  been,  indeed,  a  memorable 
scene.  Mr.  Webster  possessed  in  the  highest  degree 
the  art  of  so  presenting  a  case  that  the  mere  statement 
seemed  equivalent  to  demonstration  ;  and  never  perhaps 
did  he  exhibit  that  art  in  greater  perfection  or  use  it  to 
better  purpose  than  in  this  argument,  in  which  the 
political  aspect  of  the  case  was  plainly  seen  and  felt, 
but  never  allowed  to  intrude  upon  the  foreground, 
where  the  purely  legal  considerations  were  mustered. 
The  concluding  sentences  have  often  been  remarked 
as  bold  and  consummate  in  their  art,  in  suddenly 
abandoning  argument  and  appealing  to  emotion.  But 
the  art  in  it  was  doubtless  that  best  kind  of  art  that 
nature  makes.  Mr.  Webster  was  a  man  of  intense 


37^  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

feelings.  He  was  not  merely  defending  a  great  prin 
ciple  of  constitutional  government,  but  he  was  pleading 
the  cause  of  the  little  college  where,  by  dint  of  hard 
work  and  many  sacrifices,  his  brother  Ezekiel  and  him 
self  had  obtained  their  education.  Instead  of  describ 
ing  in  general  terms  what  would  happen  if  American 
colleges  were  liable  to  be  drawn  into  the  political 
arena  and  their  government  made  the  sport  of  contend 
ing  parties,  he  closed  his  speech  with  these  few  sim 
ple  words  :  "  This,  sir,  is  my  case.  It  is  the  case  not 
merely  of  that  humble  institution,  it  is  the  case  of 
every  college  in  our  land.  .  .  .  Sir,  you  may  destroy 
this  little  institution  ;  it  is  weak,  it  is  in  your  hands ! 
I  know  it  is  one  of  the  lesser  lights  in  the  literary 
horizon  of  our  country.  You  may  put  it  out.  But  if 
you  do  so,  you  must  carry  through  your  work  !  You 
must  extinguish  one  after  another  those  greater  lights 
of  science  which  for  more  than  a  century  have  thrown 
their  radiance  over  our  land.  It  is,  sir,  as  I  have  said, 
a  small  college.  And  yet,  there  are  those  who  love 
it."  Here  Mr.  Webster's  voice  trembled  and  his  eyes 
were  wet  with  tears.  Coming  from  this  grand  and 
stately  man,  who  for  five  hours  had  held  judges  and 
audience  spellbound  by  power  of  reasoning  and  beauty 
of  phrase,  the  effect  of  this  natural  burst  of  feeling 
was  extraordinary.  Leaning  forward  in  breathless 
silence,  with  eyes  suffused  and  with  beating  hearts, 
judges  and  audience  forgot  all  else  in  eager  watching 
of  every  movement  of  the  speaker's  face,  when  recover 
ing  himself  he  said  in  his  most  solemn  tones,  addressing 
the  chief  justice  :  "  Sir,  I  know  not  how  others  may 
feel  [glancing  at  the  opponents  of  the  college  before 
him],  but  for  myself,  when  I  see  my  Alma  Mater  sur- 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  379 

rounded,  like  Caesar  in  the  senate-house,  by  those  who 
are  reiterating  stab  after  stab,  I  would  not  for  this 
right  hand  have  her  turn  to  me  and  say,  Et  tu  quoque, 
mi  fill  !  And  thou  too,  my  son  !  "  As  he  sat  down, 
said  a  gentleman  who  was  present,  "  there  was  a  death 
like  stillness  throughout  the  room  for  some  moments  ; 
every  one  seemed  to  be  slowly  recovering  himself,  and 
coming  gradually  back  to  his  ordinary  range  of  thought 
and  feeling."  The  decision  of  the  court,  rendered  in 
the  following  autumn,  sustained  Mr.  Webster  and  set 
aside  the  act  of  the  legislature  as  unconstitutional.  It 
was  one  of  those  far-reaching  decisions  in  which  the 
Supreme  Court,  under  Marshall,  fixed  the  interpretation 
of  the  Constitution  in  such  wise  as  to  add  greatly  to 
its  potency  as  a  fundamental  instrument  of  government. 
It  was  a  case  in  which  a  contrary  decision  would 
have  altered  the  whole  future  of  American  law,  and 
would  have  modified  our  political  and  social  develop 
ment  in  many  ways.  The  clause  of  our  Constitution 
prohibiting  state  legislation  in  impairment  of  contracts, 
like  most  such  general  provisions,  stood  in  need  of 
judicial  decisions  to  determine  its  scope.  By  bringing 
under  the  protection  of  this  clause  every  charter 
granted  by  a  state,  the  decision  in  the  Dartmouth 
College  case  went  farther  perhaps  than  any  other  in 
our  history  toward  limiting  state  sovereignty  and 
extending  the  federal  jurisdiction. 

This  extension  of  federal  power  was,  moreover, 
entirely  in  the  right  direction.  It  was  conservative, 
pacific,  and  just  in  its  tendencies.  It  is  no  part  of  the 
legitimate  business  of  government  to  help  people  in 
business,  whether  under  pretence  of  fostering  domestic 
industry,  or  what  not ;  but  it  is  the  legitimate  business 


380  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

of  government  to  preserve  order  and  punish  criminals, 
to  see  that  contracts  are  fulfilled,  that  charters  are  kept 
inviolate,  and  the  foundations  of  human  confidence  not 
rudely  or  wantonly  disturbed,  for  only  thus  does  the  com 
munity  insure  for  its  members  a  fair  field  and  no  favour. 

In  the  Dartmouth  College  case  we  may  see  one 
chapter  in  Mr.  Webster's  great  life-work  of  strength 
ening  the  federal  government  and  tightening  the 
bonds  of  pacific  union  among  the  states. 

In  the  Massachusetts  convention  of  1820  for  revis 
ing  the  state  constitution,  he  next  played  an  impor 
tant  part.  He  advocated  with  success  the  abolition 
of  religious  tests  for  office-holders,  and  in  a  speech 
in  support  of  the  feature  of  property  representation 
in  the  senate  he  examined  the  theory  and  practice  of 
bicameral  legislation.  His  discussion  of  that  subject 
is  well  worthy  of  study.  In  the  same  year,  at  the 
celebration  of  the  second  centennial  of  the  landing  of 
the  Pilgrims,  his  commemorative  oration  was  one  of 
the  noblest  ever  delivered.  In  1825,  on  the  laying 
of  the  corner-stone  of  Bunker  Hill  monument,  he 
attained  still  higher  perfection  of  eloquence ;  and  one 
year  later,  on  the  deaths  of  Adams  and  Jefferson,  his 
eulogy  upon  those  statesmen  completed  a  trio  of  his 
torical  addresses  unsurpassed  in  splendour.  The 
spirit  which  animates  these  orations  is  that  of  the 
broadest  patriotism,  enlightened  by  a  clear  perception 
of  the  fundamental  importance  of  the  federal  union 
between  the  states,  and  an  ever  present  consciousness 
of  the  mighty  future  of  our  country  and  its  moral 
significance  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Such  topics 
have  often  been  treated  as  commonplaces,  and  made 
the  .  theme  of  vapid  rhetoric ;  but  under  Daniel 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  381 

Webster's  treatment  they  acquired  a  philosophical 
value,  and  were  fraught  with  most  serious  and  earnest 
meaning.  These  orations  were  conceived  in  a  spirit 
of  religious  devotion  to  the  Union,  and  contributed 
powerfully  toward  awakening  such  a  sentiment  in 
those  who  read  them  afterward,  while  upon  those  who 
heard  them  from  the  lips  of  the  majestic  speaker  the 
impression  was  such  as  could  never  be  effaced.  The 
historian  must  assign  to  them  a  high  place  among 
the  literary  influences  that  aroused  in  the  American 
people  a  sentiment  of  union  strong  enough  to  endure 
the  shock  of  war. 

In  1822  Mr.  Webster  was  elected  to  Congress  from 
the  Boston  district,  and  was  twice  reelected  by  a  popu 
lar  vote  that  was  almost  unanimous.  As  chairman  of 
the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House,  he  prepared 
and  carried  the  "crimes  act,"  in  which  the  criminal 
jurisprudence  of  the  federal  courts  was  thoroughly 
remodelled.  The  preparation  of  this  bill  showed  in 
a  high  degree  his  constructive  genius  as  a  legislator, 
while  in  carrying  it  through  Congress  his  parliamen 
tary  skill  and  persuasiveness  in  debate  were  equally 
conspicuous.  Of  his  two  most  celebrated  speeches  in 
Congress  during  this  period,  the  first  related  to  the 
revolution  in  Greece.  In  January,  1824,  Mr.  Webster 
brought  forward  a  resolution  in  favour  of  making 
provision  for  a  commissioner  to  Greece,  should  Presi 
dent  Monroe  see  fit  to  appoint  one.  In  his  speech  on 
this  occasion,  he  set  forth  the  hostility  of  the  American 
people  to  the  principles,  motives,  and  methods  of  the 
Holy  Alliance,  and  their  sympathy  with  such  struggles 
for  self-government  as  that  in  which  the  Greeks  were 
engaged.  The  resolution  was  not  adopted,  but  the 


382  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

speech  gave  its  author  a  European  reputation.  It 
was  translated  into  almost  all  the  languages  of 
Europe,  from  Gibraltar  to  the  Volga,  and  called  forth 
much  lively  comment. 

The  other  great  speech,  delivered  in  April,  1824, 
was  what  is  commonly  called  Mr.  Webster's  "free 
trade  speech."  A  bill  had  been  introduced  for  revis 
ing  the  tariff  in  such  a  way  as  to  extend  the  operation 
of  the  protective  system.  In  this  speech  Mr.  Web 
ster  found  fault  with  the  phrase  "  American  policy,"  as 
applied  by  Mr.  Clay  to  the  system  of  high  protective 
duties.  "  If  names  are  thought  necessary,"  said  Mr. 
Webster,  "  it  would  be  well  enough,  one  would  think, 
that  the  name  should  be  in  some  measure  descriptive 
of  the  thing;  and  since  Mr.  Speaker  denominates  the 
policy  which  he  recommends  a  'new  policy  in  this 
country ' ;  since  he  speaks  of  the  present  measure  as  a 
new  era  in  our  legislation ;  since  he  professes  to  invite 
us  to  depart  from  our  accustomed  course,  to  instruct 
ourselves  by  the  wisdom  of  others,  and  to  adopt  the 
policy  of  the  most  distinguished  foreign  states,  —  one 
is  a  little  curious  to  know  with  what  propriety  of 
speech  this  imitation  of  other  nations  is  denominated 
an  '  American  policy,'  while,  on  the  contrary,  a  prefer 
ence  for  our  own  established  system,  as  it  now  actually 
exists  and  always  has  existed,  is  called  a  'foreign 
policy.'  This  favourite  American  policy  is  what 
America  has  never  tried ;  and  this  odious  foreign 
policy  is  what,  as  we  are  told,  foreign  states  have  never 
pursued.  Sir,  that  is  the  truest  American  policy 
which  shall  most  usefully  employ  American  capital 
and  American  labour."  After  this  exordium,  Mr.  Web 
ster  went  on  to  give  a  masterly  exposition  of  some  of 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  383 

the  elementary  theorems  of  political  economy,  and  a 
survey,  at  once  comprehensive  and  accurate,  of  the 
condition  of  American  industry  at  the  time.  He  not 
only  attacked  Mr.  Clay's  policy  on  broad  national 
grounds,  but  also  showed  more  specifically  that  it  was 
likely  to  prove  injurious  to  the  maritime  commerce  in 
which  the  New  England  states  had  so  long  taken  the 
lead ;  and  he  concluded  by  characterizing  that  policy 
as  "  so  burdensome  and  so  dangerous  to  that  interest 
which  has  steadily  enriched,  gallantly  defended,  and 
proudly  distinguished  us,  that  nothing  can  prevail 
upon  me  to  give  it  my  support."  Upon  this  last  clause 
of  his  speech  he  was  afterward  enabled  to  rest  a  partial 
justification  of  his  change  of  attitude  toward  the  tariff. 
In  politics  Mr.  Webster  occupied  at  this  time  quite 
an  independent  position.  The  old  Federalist  party, 
to  which  he  had  formerly  belonged,  was  completely 
broken  down,  and  the  new  National  Republican  party, 
with  its  inheritance  of  many  of  the  principles,  motives, 
and  methods  of  the  federalists,  was  just  beginning  to 
take  shape  under  the  leadership  of  Adams  and  Clay. 
Between  these  eminent  statesmen  and  Mr.  Webster, 
the  state  of  feeling  was  not  such  as  to  insure  cordial 
cooperation ;  but  in  their  views  of  government  there 
was  similarity  enough  to  bring  them  together  in  oppo 
sition  to  the  new  Democratic  party  represented  by 
Jackson,  Benton,  and  Van  Buren.  With  the  extreme 
Southern  views  of  Crawford  and  Calhoun  it  was  im 
possible  that  he  should  sympathize,  although  his  per 
sonal  relations  with  those  leaders  were  quite  friendly, 
and  after  the  death  of  Calhoun  the  noblest  eulogium 
upon  his  character  and  motives  was  made  by  Mr. 
Webster.  Coleridge  once  said  that  every  man  is  born 


384  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

either  an  Aristotelian  or  a  Platonist.  There  is  a  sense 
in  which  all  American  statesmen  may  be  said  to 
be  intellectually  the  descendants  and  disciples,  either 
of  Jefferson  or  of  Hamilton,  and  as  a  representative 
follower  of  Hamilton,  Mr.  Webster  was  sure  to  be 
drawn  rather  toward  Clay  than  toward  Jackson.  The 
course  of  industrial  events  in  New  England  was  such  as 
to  involve  changes  of  opinion  in  that  part  of  the  country, 
which  were  soon  reflected  in  a  complete  reversal  of  Mr. 
Webster's  attitude  toward  the  tariff.  In  1827  he  was 
elected  to  the  United  States  Senate.  In  that  year  an 
agitation  was  begun  by  the  woollen  manufacturers, 
which  soon  developed  into  a  promiscuous  scramble 
among  different  industries  for  aid  from  government, 
and  finally  resulted  in  the  tariff  of  1828.  That  act, 
which  was  generally  known  at  the  time  as  "  the  tariff 
of  abominations,"  was  the  first  extreme  application  of 
the  protective  system  in  our  federal  legislation.  When 
the  bill  was  pending  before  the  Senate  in  April,  1828, 
Mr.  Webster  made  a  memorable  speech,  in  which  he 
completely  abandoned  the  position  he  had  held  in  1824, 
and  from  this  time  forth  he  was  a  supporter  of  the 
policy  of  Mr.  Clay  and  the  protectionists.  For  this 
change  of  attitude  he  was  naturally  praised  by  his  new 
allies,  who  were  glad  to  interpret  it  as  a  powerful  argu 
ment  in  favour  of  their  views.  By  every  one  else  he 
was  blamed,  and  this  speech  has  often  been  cited,  to 
gether  with  that  of  March  7,  1850,  as  proving  that  Mr. 
Webster  was  governed  by  unworthy  motives  and  want 
ing  in  political  principle.  The  two  cases,  as  we  shall 
see,  are  in  many  respects  parallel.  In  neither  case  did 
Mr.  Webster  attempt  to  conceal  or  disguise  his  real 
motives.  In  1828  he  frankly  admitted  that  the  policy 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  385 

of  protection  to  manufacturers,  by  means  of  tariff  duties, 
was  a  policy  of  which  he  had  disapproved,  whether  as 
a  political  economist  or  as  a  representative  of  the  inter 
ests  of  New  England.  Against  his  own  opposition 
and  that  of  New  England  the  act  of  1824  had  passed. 
"  What,  then,  was  New  England  to  do  ?  ...  Was  she 
to  hold  out  forever  against  the  course  of  the  govern 
ment,  and  see  herself  losing  on  one  side  and  yet  make 
no  effort  to  sustain  herself  on  the  other?  No,  sir. 
Nothing  was  left  for  New  England  but  to  conform  her 
self  to  the  will  of  others.  Nothing  was  left  to  her  but 
to  consider  that  the  government  had  fixed  and  deter 
mined  its  own  policy ;  and  that  policy  was  protection? 
In  other  words,  the  tariff  policy  adopted  at  Washing 
ton,  while  threatening  the  commercial  interests  of 
New  England,  had  favoured  the  investment  of  capital 
in  manufactures  there,  and  it  was  not  becoming  in  a 
representative  of  New  England  to  take  part  in  disturb 
ing  the  new  arrangement  of  things.  This  argument, 
if  pushed  far  enough,  would  end  in  the  doctrine  —  now 
apparently  obsolete,  though  it  has  often  been  attacked 
and  defended — that  a  senator  is  simply  the  ambas 
sador  of  his  state  in  Congress.  With  Mr.  Webster  it 
went  so  far  as  to  modify  essentially  his  expressions  of 
opinion  as  to  the  constitutionality  of  protective  legis 
lation.  He  had  formerly  been  inclined  to  interpret 
the  Constitution  strictly  upon  this  point,  but  in  1828 
and  afterward  his  position  was  that  of  the  loose  con- 
structionists.  From  the  economic  point  of  view  he 
would  doubtless  have  been  a  safer  guide  for  New  Eng 
land  had  he  insisted  upon  acting  up  to  the  full  meas 
ure  of  his  convictions.  He  was  too  honest  a  thinker 
to  be  able  to  conceal  the  real  workings  of  his  mind, 

2C 


DANIEL   WEBSTER 

and  his  speeches  in  defence  of  the  high  tariff  policy 
never  once  had  the  ring  of  true  metal.  Other  men 
might  be  fooled  by  the  sophistry  of  protectionism,  but 
he  was  not.  It  would  be  unfair,  however,  to  charge 
him  with  conscious  dereliction  to  principle  in  this 
matter.  It  would  be  more  just  and  more  correct  to 
say  that,  amid  the  complication  of  conflicting  interests, 
he  felt  it  necessary  to  subordinate  one  question  to  an 
other  that  was  at  that  time  clearly  more  important. 
His  conduct  was  far  more  the  result  of  his  strong  Fed 
eralist  bias  than  of  the  temperament  which  has  some 
times  been  called  "  opportunism." 

This  tariff  of  1828  soon  furnished  an  occasion  for 
the  display  of  his  strong  Federalist  spirit  in  a  way  that 
was  most  serviceable  for  his  country  and  has  earned 
for  him  undying  fame  as  an  orator  and  statesman.  It 
led  to  the  distinct  announcement  of  the  principles  of 
nullification  by  the  public  men  of  South  Carolina,  with 
Mr.  Calhoun  at  their  head.  During  President  Jack 
son's  first  term  the  question  as  to  nullification  seemed 
to  occupy  everybody's  thoughts,  and  had  a  way  of 
intruding  upon  the  discussion  of  all  other  questions. 
In  December,  1829,  Samuel  A.  Foote  of  Connecticut 
presented  to  the  Senate  a  resolution  inquiring  into 
the  expediency  of  limiting  the  sales  of  the  public  lands 
to  those  already  in  the  market,  besides  suspending  the 
surveys  of  the  public  lands  and  abolishing  the  office 
of  Surveyor-general.  The  resolution  was  quite  natu 
rally  resented  by  the  Western  senators,  as  having  a 
tendency  to  check  the  growth  of  their  section  of  the 
country.  The  debate  was  opened  by  Mr.  Benton,  and 
lasted  several  weeks,  with  increasing  bitterness.  The 
belief  in  the  hostility  of  the  New  England  states  toward 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  387 

the  West  was  shared  by  many  Southern  senators,  who 
desired  to  unite  South  and  West  in  opposition  to  the 
tariff.  On  the  igth  of  January,  1830,  Robert  Y.  Hayne 
of  South  Carolina  attacked  the  New  England  states, 
accusing  them  of  aiming  by  their  protective  policy  at 
aggrandizing  themselves  at  the  expense  of  all  the  rest 
of  the  Union.  On  the  next  day  Mr.  Webster  deliv 
ered  his  "  first  speech  on  Foote's  resolution,"  in  which 
he  took  up  Mr.  Hayne's  accusations  and  answered  them 
with  great  power.  This  retort  provoked  a  long  and 
able  reply  from  Mr.  Hayne,  in  which  he  not  only 
assailed  Mr.  Webster  and  Massachusetts  and  New 
England,  but  set  forth  quite  ingeniously  and  elabo 
rately  the  doctrines  of  nullification.  In  view  of  the 
political  agitation  then  going  on  in  South  Carolina,  it 
was  felt  that  this  speech  would  work  practical  mischief 
unless  it  should  meet  with  instant  refutation.  It  was 
finished  on  the  25th  of  January,  and  on  the  next  two 
days  Mr.  Webster  delivered  his  "  second  speech  on 
Foote's  resolution,"  better  known  in  history  as  the 
"  Reply  to  Hayne."  The  debate  had  now  lasted  so 
long  that  people  had  come  from  different  parts  of  the 
country  to  Washington  to  hear  it,  and  on  the  26th  of 
January  the  crowd  not  only  filled  the  galleries  and 
invaded  the  floor  of  the  senate-chamber,  but  occupied 
all  the  lobbies  and  entries  within  hearing  and  even 
beyond.  In  the  first  part  of  his  speech  Mr.  Webster 
replied  to  the  aspersions  upon  himself  and  New  Eng 
land;  in  the  second  part  he  attacked  with  weighty 
argument  and  keen-edged  sarcasm  the  doctrine  of  nulli 
fication.  He  did  not  undertake  to  deny  the  right  of 
revolution,  as  a  last  resort  in  cases  with  which  legal 
and  constitutional  methods  are  found  inadequate  to 


388  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

deal ;  but  he  assailed  the  theory  of  the  Constitution 
maintained  by  Calhoun  and  his  followers,  according 
to  which  nullification  was  a  right  the  exercise  of  which 
was  compatible  with  loyal  adherence  to  the  Constitu 
tion.  His  course  of  argument  was  twofold :  he  sought 
to  show,  first,  that  the  theory  of  the  Constitution  as  a 
terminable  league  or  compact  between  sovereign  states 
was  unsupported  by  the  history  of  its  origin,  and  sec 
ondly,  that  the  attempt,  on  the  part  of  any  state,  to  act 
upon  that  theory  must  necessarily  entail  civil  war  or 
the  disruption  of  the  Union.  As  to  the  sufficiency 
of  his  historical  argument,  there  has  been  much  differ 
ence  of  opinion.  The  question  is  difficult  to  deal  with 
in  such  a  way  as  to  reach  an  unassailable  conclusion, 
and  the  difficulty  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the 
various  ratifying  conventions  of  1787-1789  the  men 
who  advocated  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  did 
not  all  hold  the  same  opinions  as  to  the  significance  of 
what  they  were  doing.  There  was  great  divergence 
of  opinion,  and  plenty  of  room  for  antagonisms  of 
interpretation  to  grow  up  as  irreconcilable  as  those 
of  Webster  and  Calhoun.  If  the  South  Carolina  doc 
trine  distorted  history  in  one  direction,  that  of  Mr.  Web 
ster  certainly  departed  somewhat  from  the  record  in 
the  other ;  but  the  latter  was  fully  in  harmony  with  the 
actual  course  of  our  national  development  and  with 
the  increased  and  increasing  strength  of  the  sentiment 
of  union  at  the  time  when  it  was  propounded  with 
such  powerful  reasoning  and  such  magnificent  elo 
quence  in  the  "  Reply  to  Hayne."  As  an  appeal  to 
the  common  sense  of  the  American  people,  nothing 
could  be  more  masterly  than  Mr.  Webster's  demon 
stration  that  nullification  practically  meant  revolution; 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  389 

and  their  unalterable  opinion  of  the  soundness  of  his 
argument  was  amply  illustrated  when  at  length  the 
crisis  came,  which  he  deprecated  with  such  intensity 
of  emotion  in  his  concluding  sentences.  To  some  of 
the  senators  who  listened  to  the  speech,  as  for  instance 
Thomas  H.  Benton,  it  seemed  as  if  the  passionate  elo 
quence  of  its  close  concerned  itself  with  imaginary 
dangers  never  likely  to  be  realized ;  but  the  event 
showed  that  Mr.  Webster  estimated  correctly  the 
perilousness  of  the  doctrine  against  which  he  was  con 
tending.  For  genuine  oratorical  power,  the  "  Reply 
to  Hayne  "  is  probably  the  greatest  speech  that  has 
been  delivered  since  the  oration  of  Demosthenes  on 
the  crown.  The  comparison  is  natural,  as  there  are 
points  in  the  American  orator  that  forcibly  remind 
one  of  the  Athenian.  There  is  the  fine  sense  of  pro 
portion  and  fitness,  the  massive  weight  of  argument 
due  to  transparent  clearness  and  matchless  symmetry 
of  statement,  and  along  with  the  rest  a  truly  Attic  sim 
plicity  of  diction.  Mr.  Webster  never  indulged  in  mere 
rhetorical  flights;  his  sentences,  simple  in  structure 
and  weighted  with  meaning,  went  straight  to  the 
mark;  and  his  arguments  were  so  skilfully  framed  that, 
while  his  most  learned  and  critical  hearers  were  im 
pressed  with  a  sense  of  their  collusiveness,  no  man 
of  ordinary  intelligence  could  fail  to  understand  them. 
To  these  high  qualifications  of  the  orator  was  added 
such  a  physical  presence  as  but  few  men  have  been 
endowed  with.  I  believe  it  was  Carlyle  who  said  of 
him,  "  I  wonder  if  any  man  can  possibly  be  as  great  as 
he  looks ! "  *  Mr.  Webster's  appearance  was  indeed 

1  In  his  paper  on  Andrew  Jackson  and  American  Democracy,  page  270  of  this 
volume,  Dr.  Fiske  refers  to  the  bright  blue  coat  with  brass  buttons  and  buff  waist 
coat  as  worn  by  Daniel  Webster,  which  came  to  be  a  symbol  of  Americanism.  In 


390  DANIEL   WEBSTER 

one  of  unequalled  dignity  and  power,  his  voice  was 
rich  and  musical,  and  the  impressiveness  of  his  deliv 
ery  was  enhanced  by  the  depth  of  genuine  manly  feel 
ing  with  which  he  spoke.  Yet  while  his  great  speeches 
owed  so  much  of  their  overpowering  effect  to  the  look 
and  manner  of  the  man,  they  were  at  the  same  time 
masterpieces  of  literature.  Like  the  speeches  of  De 
mosthenes,  they  were  capable  of  swaying  the  reader  as 
well  as  the  hearer,  and  their  effects  went  far  beyond 
the  audience  and  far  beyond  the  occasion  of  their 
delivery. 

In  all  these  respects  the  "  Reply  to  Hayne  "  marks 
the  culmination  of  Mr.  Webster's  power  as  an  orator. 
Of  all  the  occasions  of  his  life,  this  encounter  with  the 

discussing  "  the  provincialism  of  ante  helium  days,"  the  late  Mr.  Justin  Winsor  wrote 
Dr.  Fiske,  February  3,  1892,  as  follows:  "...  the  blue  coat  and  brass  buttons, 
which  so  grandly  set  off  the  figure  of  Webster  —  I  remember  him  in  them  often. 
H£  wore  them  when  he  made  that  speech  at  Marshfield,  in  which  he  showed 
his  bitter  disappointment  that  the  Whigs  had  not  nominated  him  rather  than 
Taylor,  and  I  was  close  to  him  during  the  whole  of  it.  But  I  never  .supposed  that 
it  was  solely  because  it  gave  brilliancy  to  a  dignified  carriage  that  he  clung  to 
that  costume;  but  rather  because  it  showed  the  Whig  colours  of  blue  and  yellow, 
which  Fox  and  his  fellows  had  made  cqjnmon  in  precisely  the  same  way  in  Eng 
land  during  the  early  years  of  the  century;  and  indeed  I  think  George  IV.  when 
Regent  wore  it,  when  not  in  state.  Certainly  it  was  not  an  uncommon  dress  in 
Europe  at  a  later  period.  When  I  was  there  in  the  early  fifties,  I  had  a  dress 
coat  of  blue,  with  brass  buttons,  made  in  Paris,  and  I  was  not  by  any  means 
singular  in  wearing  it  in  company  in  Paris  and  Heidelberg." 

A  note  on  Dr.  Boott,  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Charles  Darwin,"  2d  edition,  page 
294,  throws  further  light  on  this  point:  "Francis  Boott  (born  1792,  died  1863) 
.  .  .  was  .  .  .  well  known  in  connection  with  the  Linnaean  Society.  .  .  .  He  is 
described  (in  a  biographical  sketch  published  in  the  Gardener's  Chronicle,  1864) 
as  having  been  one  of  the  first  physicians  in  London  who  gave  up  the  customary 
black  coat,  knee  breeches,  and  silk  stockings,  and  adopted  the  ordinary  dress  of 
the  period,  a  blue  coat  with  brass  buttons  and  a  buff  waistcoat,  a  costume  which 
he  continued  to  wear  to  the  last." 

Though  the  blue-tailed  coat  was  indeed  an  ordinary  gentleman's  costume  in 
England,  it  stood,  as  may  be  seen  from  coloured  prints  of  the  day,  rather  for  quiet 
and  dignity  than  for  "  smartness  "  and  fashion.  In  the  United  States  it  certainly 
developed  independently  into  what  Daniel  Webster  made  it  —  a  symbol  of 
Americanism. 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  391 

doctrine  of  nullification  on  its  first  bold  announcement 
in  the  Senate  was  certainly  the  greatest;  and  the 
speech  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  It  struck  a  chord 
in  the  heart  of  the  American  people  which  had  not 
ceased  to  vibrate  when  the  crisis  came  thirty  years 
later.  It  gave  articulate  expression  to  a  sentiment  of 
loyalty  to  the  Union  that  went  on  growing  until  the 
American  citizen  was  as  prompt  to  fight  for  the  Union 
as  the  Mussulman  for  his  Prophet  or  the  Cavalier  for 
his  king.  It  furnished,  moreover,  a  clear  and  compre 
hensive  statement  of  the  theory  by  which  that  senti 
ment  of  loyalty  was  justified.  Of  the  men  who  in 
after  years  gave  up  their  lives  for  the  Union,  doubt 
less  the  greater  number  had  as  schoolboys  declaimed 
passages  from  this  immortal  speech  and  caught  some 
inspiration  from  its  fervid  patriotism.  Probably  no 
other  speech  ever  made  in  Congress  has  found  so 
many  readers  or  exerted  so  much  influence  in  giving 
shape  to  men's  thoughts. 

Three  years  afterward  Mr.  Webster  returned  to  the 
struggle  with  nullification,  being  now  pitted  against 
the  master  of  that  doctrine  instead  of  the  disciple. 
In  the  interval  South  Carolina  had  attempted  to  put 
the  doctrine  into  practice,  and  had  been  resolutely 
met  by  President  Jackson  with  his  proclamation  of 
the  loth  of  December,  1832.  In  response  to  a  spe 
cial  message  from  the  President,  early  in  January, 
1833,  the  so-called  "force  bill,"  empowering  the 
President  to  use  the  army  and  navy,  if  necessary,  for 
enforcing  the  revenue  laws  in  South  Carolina,  was 
reported  in  the  Senate.  The  bill  was  opposed  by 
Democrats  who  did  not  go  so  far  as  to  approve  of 
nullification,  but  the  defection  of  these  senators  was 


392  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

more  than  balanced  by  the  accession  of  Mr.  Webster, 
who  upon  this  measure  came  promptly  to  the  support 
of  the  administration.  For  this,  says  Benton,  "his 
motives  .  .  .  were  attacked,  and  he  was  accused  of 
subserviency  to  the  President  for  the  sake  of  future 
favour.  At  the  same  time,  all  the  support  which  he 
gave  to  these  measures  was  the  regular  result  of  the 
principles  which  he  laid  down  against  nullification  in 
the  debate  with  Mr.  Hayne,  and  he  could  not  have 
done  less  without  being  derelict  to  his  own  principles 
then  avowed.  It  was  a  proud  era  in  his  life,  support 
ing  with  transcendent  ability  the  cause  of  the  Consti 
tution  and  of  the  country,  in  the  person  of  a  chief 
magistrate  to  whom  he  was  politically  opposed,  bursting 
the  bonds  of  party  at  the  call  of  duty,  and  display 
ing  a  patriotism  worthy  of  admiration  and  imitation. 
General  Jackson  felt  the  debt  of  gratitude  and  admira 
tion  which  he  owed  him ;  the  country,  without  distinc 
tion  of  party,  felt  the  same.  ...  He  was  the  colossal 
figure  on  the  political  stage  during  that  eventful  time; 
and  his  labours,  splendid  in  their  day,  survive  for  the 
benefit  of  distant  posterity  "  ("  Thirty  Years'  View," 
I.  334).  The  support  of  the  President's  policy  by  Mr. 
Webster,  and  its  enthusiastic  approval  by  nearly  all 
the  Northern  and  a  great  many  of  the  Southern  peo 
ple,  seems  to  have  alarmed  Mr.  Calhoun,  probably  not 
so  much  for  his  personal  safety  as  for  the  welfare  of 
his  nullification  schemes.  The  story  that  he  was 
frightened  by  the  rumour  that  Jackson  had  threatened 
to  begin  by  arresting  him  on  a  charge  of  treason  is 
now  generally  discredited.  He  had  seen  enough, 
however,  to  convince  him  that  the  theory  of  peace 
ful  nullification  was  not  now  likely  to  be  realized.  It 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  393 

was  not  his  aim  to  provoke  an  armed  collision,  and 
accordingly  a  momentary  alliance  was  made  between 
himself  and  Mr.  Clay,  resulting  in  the  compromise 
tariff  bill  of  the  I2th  of  February,  1833.  Only  four 
days  elapsed  between  Mr.  Webster's  announcement  of 
his  intention  to  support  the  President  and  the  intro 
duction  of  this  compromise  measure.  Mr.  Webster 
at  once  opposed  the  compromise,  both  as  unsound 
economically  and  as  an  unwise  and  dangerous  conces 
sion  to  the  threats  of  the  nullifiers.  At  this  point  the 
force  bill  was  brought  forward,  and  Mr.  Calhoun 
made  his  great  speech,  February  15  and  16,  in 
support  of  the  resolutions  he  had  introduced  on  the 
22d  of  January,  affirming  the  doctrine  of  nullifica 
tion.  To  this  Mr.  Webster  replied,  February  16, 
with  his  speech  entitled  "  The  Constitution  not  a 
Compact  between  Sovereign  States,"  in  which  he  sup 
plemented  and  reenforced  the  argument  of  the  "  Reply 
to  Hayne."  Mr.  Calhoun's  answer,  February  26,  was 
perhaps  the  most  powerful  speech  he  ever  delivered, 
and  Mr.  Webster  did  not  reply  to  it  at  length.  The 
burden  of  the  discussion  was,  what  the  American  peo 
ple  really  did  when  they  adopted  the  federal  Consti 
tution.  Did  they  simply  create  a  league  between 
sovereign  states,  or  did  they  create  a  national  govern 
ment,  which  operates .  immediately  upon  individuals, 
and,  without  superseding  the  state  governments,  stands 
superior  to  them  and  claims  a  prior  allegiance  from 
all  citizens  ?  It  is  now  plain  to  be  seen  that  in  point 
of  fact  they  did  create  such  a  national  government  ; 
but  how  far  they  realized  at  the  outset  what  they  were 
doing  is  quite  another  question.  Mr.  Webster's  main 
conclusion  was  sustained  with  colossal  strength ;  but 


394  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

his  historical  argument  was  in  some  places  weak,  and 
the  weakness  is  unconsciously  betrayed  in  a  disposi 
tion  toward  wire-drawn  subtlety,  from  which  Mr. 
Webster  was  usually  quite  free.  His  ingenious  rea 
soning  upon  the  meaning  of  such  words  as  "compact" 
and  "  accede  "  was  easily  demolished  by  Mr.  Calhoun, 
who  was,  however,  more  successful  in  hitting  upon  his 
adversary's  vulnerable  points  than  in  making  good  his 
own  case.  In  fact,  the  historical  question  was  not 
really  so  simple  as  it  presented  itself  to  the  minds  of 
those  two  great  statesmen.  But  in  whatever  way  it 
was  to  be  settled,  the  force  of  Mr.  Webster's  practical 
conclusions  remained,  as  he  declared  in  the  brief  re 
joinder  with  which  he  ended  the  discussion,  —  "  Mr. 
President,  turn  this  question  over  and  present  it  as 
we  will  —  argue  it  as  we  may  —  exhaust  upon  it  all 
the  fountains  of  metaphysics  —  stretch  over  it  all  the 
meshes  of  logical  or  political  subtlety  —  it  still  comes 
to  this,  Shall  we  have  a  general  government?  Shall 
we  continue  the  union  of  the  states  under  a  govern 
ment  instead  of  a  league  ?  This  is  the  upshot  of  the 
whole  matter;  because,  if  we  are  to  have  a  govern 
ment,  that  government  must  act  like  other  govern 
ments,  by  majorities ;  it  must  have  this  power,  like 
other  governments,  of  enforcing  its  own  laws  and  its 
own  decisions ;  clothed  with  authority  by  the  people 
and  always  responsible  to  the  people,  it  must  be  able 
to  hold  its  course  unchecked  by  external  interposition. 
According  to  the  gentleman's  views  of  the  matter,  the 
Constitution  is  a  league;  according  to  mine,  it  is  a 
regular  popular  government.  This  vital  and  all-impor 
tant  question  the  people  will  decide,  and  in  deciding 
it  they  will  determine  whether,  by  ratifying  the  pres- 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF  UNION  395 

ent  Constitution  and  Frame  of  Government,  they 
meant  to  do  nothing  more  than  to  amend  the  articles 
of  the  old  confederation."  As  the  immediate  result  of 
the  debates,  both  the  force  bill  and  the  compromise 
tariff  bill  were  adopted,  and  this  enabled  Mr.  Calhoun 
to  maintain  that  the  useful  and  conservative  character 
of  nullification  had  been  demonstrated,  since  the  action 
of  South  Carolina  had,  without  leading  to  violence, 
led  to  such  modifications  of  the  tariff  as  she  desired. 
But  the  abiding  result  was,  that  Mr.  Webster  had  set 
forth  the  theory  upon  which  the  Union  was  to  be 
preserved,  and  that  the  administration,  in  acting  upon 
that  theory,  had  established  a  precedent  for  the  next 
administration  that  should  be  called  upon  to  confront 
a  similar  crisis. 

The  alliance  between  Mr.  Webster  and  President 
Jackson  extended  only  to  the  question  of  maintaining 
the  Union.  As  an  advocate  of  the  policy  of  a  national 
bank,  a  protective  tariff,  and  internal  improvements, 
Mr.  Webster's  natural  place  was  by  the  side  of  Mr. 
Clay  in  the  Whig  party,  which  was  now  in  the  process 
of  formation.  He  was  also  at  one  with  both  the 
Northern  and  the  Southern  sections  of  the  Whig  party 
in  opposition  to  what  Mr.  Benton  called  the  "demos 
krateo "  principle,  according  to  which  the  President, 
in  order  to  carry  out  the  "  will  of  the  people,"  might 
feel  himself  authorized  to  override  the  constitutional 
limitations  upon  his  power.  This  was  not  precisely 
what  Mr.  Benton  meant  by  his  principle,  but  it  was 
the  way  in  which  it  was  practically  illustrated  in  Jack 
son's  war  against  the  bank.  In  the  course  of  this 
struggle,  Mr.  Webster  made  more  than  sixty  speeches, 
remarkable  for  their  wide  and  accurate  knowledge  of 


DANIEL  WEBSTER 

finance.  His  consummate  mastery  of  statement  is 
nowhere  more  thoroughly  exemplified  than  in  these 
speeches.  Constitutional  questions  were  brought  up  by 
Mr.  Clay's  resolutions  censuring  the  President  for  the 
removal  of  the  deposits  and  for  dismissing  William  J. 
Duane,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  In  reply  to  the 
resolutions,  President  Jackson  sent  to  the  Senate  his 
remarkable  "  Protest,"  in  which  he  maintained  that 
in  the  mere  discussion  of  such  resolutions  that  body 
transcended  its  constitutional  prerogatives,  and  that 
the  President  is  the  "direct  representative  of  the 
American  people,"  charged  with  the  duty,  if  need  be, 
of  protecting  them  against  the  usurpations  of  Con 
gress.  The  Whigs  maintained,  with  much  truth,  that 
this  doctrine,  if  carried  out  in  all  its  implications, 
would  push  democracy  to  the  point  where  it  merges 
in  Caesarism.  It  was  now  that  the  opposition  began 
to  call  themselves  Whigs,  and  tried  unsuccessfully 
to  stigmatize  the  President's  supporters  as  "  Tories." 
Mr.  Webster's  speech  on  the  President's  protest, 
May  7,  1834,  was  one  of  great  importance,  and  should 
be  read  by  every  student  of  our  constitutional  history. 
In  another  elaborate  speech,  February  16,  1835,  he 
tried  to  show  that  under  a  proper  interpretation  of 
the  Constitution  the  power  of  removal,  like  the  power 
of  appointment,  was  vested  in  the  President  and  Sen 
ate  conjointly,  and  that  "  the  decision  of  Congress  in 
1 789,  which  separated  the  power  of  removal  from  the 
power  of  appointment,  was  founded  on  an  erroneous 
construction  of  the  Constitution."  But  subsequent 
opinion  has  upheld  the  decision  of  1789,  leaving  the 
speech  to  serve  as  an  illustration  of  the  way  in  which, 
under  the  stress  of  a  particular  contest,  the  Whigs 


AND  THE   SENTIMENT  OF  UNION  397 

were  as  ready  to  strain  the  Constitution  in  one  direc 
tion  as  the  Democrats  were  inclined  to  bend  it  in 
another.  An  instance  of  the  latter  kind  was  Mr.  Ben- 
ton's  expunging  resolution,  against  which  Mr.  Webster 
emphatically  protested. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Webster  was  entertaining 
thoughts  of  retiring,  for  a  while  at  least,  from  public 
life.  As  he  said  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  he  had  not  for 
fourteen  years  had  leisure  to  attend  to  his  private 
affairs  or  to  become  acquainted  by  travel  with  his 
own  country.  This  period  had  not,  however,  been 
entirely  free  from  professional  work.  It  was  seldom 
that  Mr.  Webster  took  part  in  criminal  trials,  but  in 
this  department  of  legal  practice  he  showed  himself 
qualified  to  take  rank  with  the  greatest  advocates  that 
have  ever  addressed  a  jury.  His  speech  for  the  prose 
cution,  on  the  trial  of  the  murderers  of  Captain  Joseph 
White,  at  Salem,  in  August,  1830,  has  been  pro 
nounced  equal  to  the  finest  speeches  of  Lord  Erskine. 
In  the  autumn  of  1824,  while  driving  in  a  chaise  with 
his  wife  from  Sandwich  to  Boston,  he  stopped  at  the 
beautiful  farm  of  Captain  John  Thomas,  by  the  sea 
shore  at  Marshfield.  For  the  next  seven  years  his 
family  passed  their  summers  at  this  place  as  guests 
of  Captain  Thomas ;  and  as  the  latter  was  growing  old 
and  willing  to  be  eased  of  the  care  of  the  farm,  Mr. 
Webster  bought  it  of  him  in  the  autumn  of  1831. 
Captain  Thomas  continued  to  live  there,  until  his 
death  in  1837,  as  Mr.  Webster's  guest.  For  the  latter 
it  became  the  favourite  home  whither  he  retired  in  the 
intervals  of  public  life.  It  was  a  place,  he  said,  where 
he  "  could  go  out  every  day  in  the  year  and  see  some 
thing  new."  Mr.  Webster  was  very  fond  of  the  sea. 


39$  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

He  had  also  a  passion  for  country  life,  for  all  the  sights 
and  sounds  of  the  farm,  for  the  raising  of  fine  animals, 
as  well  as  for  hunting  and  fishing.  The  earlier  years 
of  Mr.  Webster's  residence  at  Marshfield,  and  of  his 
service  in  the  United  States  Senate,  witnessed  some 
serious  events  in  his  domestic  life".  Death  removed 
his  wife,  January  21,  1828,  and  his  brother  Ezekiel, 
April  10,  1829.  In  December,  1829,  he  married  Miss 
Caroline  Le  Roy,  daughter  of  a  wealthy  merchant  in 
New  York.  Immediately  after  this  second  marriage 
came  the  "  Reply  to  Hayne."  The  beginning  of  a 
new  era  in  his  private  life  coincided  with  the  begin 
ning  of  a  new  era  in  his  career  as  a  statesman.  After 
1830  Mr.  Webster  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  great 
est  powers  in  the  nation,  and  it  seemed  natural  that 
the  presidency  should  be  offered  to  such  a  man.  His 
talents,  however,  were  not  those  of  a  party  leader. 
He  was  always  too  independent.  The  earliest  elec 
tion  at  which  he  could  have  been  a  candidate  for  the 
presidency  was  that  of  1832,  and  then  there  could  be 
no  doubt  that  Mr.  Clay  represented  much  more  com 
pletely  than  Mr.  Webster  the  doctrines  of  paternal 
government  opposed  by  President  Jackson.  In  the 
helter-skelter  scramble  of  1836  the  legislature  of  Mas 
sachusetts  nominated  Mr.  Webster,  and  he  received 
the  electoral  vote  of  that  state  alone.  The  newly 
formed  Whig  party  was  inclined  to  withhold  its  true 
leaders  and  put  forward  a  western  soldier,  General 
Harrison,  in  the  hope  of  turning  to  their  own  uses 
the  same  kind  of  unreflecting  popular  enthusiasm 
which  had  carried  General  Jackson  to  the  White 
House.  In  this  policy,  aided  by  the  commercial  dis 
tress -which  began  in  1837,  they  succeeded  in  1840. 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  399 

Mr.  Webster  then  accepted  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
State  in  the  Harrison-Tyler  administration,  and  soon 
showed  himself  as  able  in  diplomacy  as  in  other  de 
partments  of  statesmanship.  A  complication  of  diffi 
culties  with  Great  Britain  seemed  to  be  bringing  us 
to  the  verge  of  war.  There  was  the  long-standing 
dispute  about  the  northeastern  boundary,  which  had 
not  been  adequately  defined  by  the  treaty  of  1783,  and 
along  with  the  renewal  of  this  controversy  there  came 
up  the  cases  of  McLeod  and  the  steamer  Caroline,  the 
slave-ship  Creole,  and  all  the  manifold  complications 
which  these  cases  involved.  The  Oregon  question, 
too,  was  looming  in  the  background.  In  disen 
tangling  these  difficulties,  Mr.  Webster  showed  rare 
tact  and  discretion.  He  was  fortunately  helped  by 
the  change  of  ministry  in  England,  which  transferred 
the  management  of  foreign  affairs  from  the  hands  of 
Lord  Palmerston  to  those  of  Lord  Aberdeen.  Ed 
ward  Everett  was  then  in  London,  and  Mr.  Webster 
secured  his  appointment  as  minister  to  Great  Britain. 
In  response  to  this  appointment,  Lord  Ashburton, 
whose  friendly  feeling  toward  the  United  States  was 
known  to  every  one,  was  sent  over  on  a  special  mis 
sion  to  confer  with  Mr.  Webster ;  and  the  result  was 
the  Ashburton  treaty  of  1842,  by  which  an  arbitrary 
and  conventional  line  was  adopted  for  the  northeastern 
boundary,  while  the  loss  thereby  suffered  by  the  states 
of  Maine  and  Massachusetts  was  to  be  indemnified 
by  the  United  States.  It  was  also  agreed  that  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  should  each  keep  its 
own  squadron  to  watch  the  coast  of  Africa  for  the 
suppression  of  the  slave-trade,  and  that  in  this  good 
work  each  nation  should  separately  enforce  its  own 


400  DANIEL   WEBSTER 

laws.  This  clause  of  the  treaty  was  known  as  the 
"cruising  convention."  The  old  grievance  of  the 
impressment  of  seamen,  which  had  been  practically 
abolished  by  the  glorious  victories  of  American  frig 
ates  in  the  War  of  1812-1815,  was  now  formally 
ended  by  Mr.  Webster's  declaration  to  Lord  Ashbur- 
ton  that  henceforth  American  vessels  would  not  sub 
mit  themselves  to  be  searched.  Henceforth  the 
enforcement  of  the  so-called  "  right  of  search  "  by  a 
British  ship  would  be  regarded  by  the  United  States 
as  a  casus  belli.  When  all  the  circumstances  are  con 
sidered,  this  Ashburton  treaty  shows  that  Mr.  Web 
ster's  powers  as  a  diplomatist  were  of  a  high  order. 
In  the  hands  of  an  ordinary  statesman,  the  affair 
might  easily  have  ended  in  a  war ;  but  his  manage 
ment  was  so  dexterous  that,  as  we  now  look  back 
upon  the  negotiation,  we  find  it  hard  to  realize  that 
there  was  any  real  danger.  Perhaps  there  could  be 
no  more  conclusive  proof,  or  more  satisfactory  meas 
ure,  of  his  success. 

While  these  important  negotiations  were  going  on, 
great  changes  had  come  over  the  political  horizon. 
There  had  been  a  quarrel  between  the  Northern  and 
Southern  sections  of  the  Whig  party,  and  on  the  i  ith 
of  September,  1841,  all  the  members  of  President  Ty 
ler's  cabinet,  except  Mr.  Webster,  resigned.  It  seems 
to  have  been  believed  by  many  of  the  Whigs  that  a 
unanimous  resignation  on  the  part  of  the  cabinet 
would  force  President  Tyler  to  resign.  The  idea 
came  from  a  misunderstanding  of  the  British  custom 
in  similar  cases,  and  it  is  an  incident  of  great  interest 
to  the  student  of  American  history;  but  there  was 
not  the  slightest  chance  that  it  should  be  realized. 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  401 

Had  there  been  any  such  chance,  Mr.  Webster  de 
feated  it  by  staying  at  his  post  in  order  to  finish  the 
treaty  with  Great  Britain.  The  Whigs  were  inclined 
to  attribute  his  conduct  to  unworthy  motives,  and  no 
sooner  had  the  treaty  been  signed,  on  August  9,  1842, 
than  the  newspapers  began  calling  upon  him  to  re 
sign.  The  treaty  was  ratified  in  the  Senate  by  a  vote 
of  thirty-nine  to  nine,  but  it  had  still  to  be  adopted 
by  Parliament,  and  much  needless  excitement  was 
occasioned  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean  by  the  discov 
ery  of  an  old  map  in  Paris,  sustaining  the  British 
view  of  the  northeastern  boundary,  and  another  in 
London,  sustaining  the  American  view.  Mr.  Web 
ster  remained  at  his  post  in  spite  of  popular  clam 
our,  until  he  knew  the  treaty  to  be  quite  safe.  In  the 
hope  of  driving  him  from  the  cabinet,  the  Whigs  in 
Massachusetts  held  a  convention  and  declared  that 
President  Tyler  was  no  longer  a  member  of  their 
party.  On  a  visit  to  Boston,  Mr.  Webster  made  a 
noble  speech  in  Faneuil  Hall,  September  30,  1842, 
in  the  course  of  which  he  declared  that  he  was  neither 
to  be  coaxed  nor  driven  into  an  action  which  in  his 
own  judgment  was  not  conducive  to  the  best  interests 
of  the  country.  He  knew  very  well  that  by  such 
independence  he  was  likely  to  injure  his  chances  for 
nomination  to  the  presidency.  He  knew  that  a  move 
ment  in  favour  of  Mr.  Clay  had  begun  in  Massachu 
setts,  and  that  his  own  course  was  adding  greatly  to 
the  impetus  of  that  movement.  But  his  patriotism 
rose  superior  to  all  personal  considerations:  In  May, 
1843,  having  seen  the  treaty  firmly  established,  he 
resigned  the  secretaryship  and  returned  to  the  prac 
tice  of  his  profession  in  Boston.  In  the  canvass  of 


2  D 


402  DANIEL   WEBSTER 

1844  he  supported  Mr.  Clay  in  a  series  of  able 
speeches.  On  Mr.  Choate's  resignation,  early  in  1845, 
Mr.  Webster  was  reelected  to  the  Senate.  The  two 
principal  questions  of  Mr.  Folk's  administration  re 
lated  to  the  partition  of  Oregon  and  the  difficulties 
which  led  to  the  war  with  Mexico.  The  Democrats 
declared  that  we  must  have  the  whole  of  Oregon  up  to 
the  parallel  of  50°  40',  although  the  49th  parallel  had 
already  been  suggested  as  a  compromise  line.  In  a  very 
able  speech  at  Faneuil  Hall,  Mr.  Webster  advocated 
the  adoption  of  this  compromise.  The  speech  was 
widely  read  in  England  and  on  the  continent  of  Europe, 
and  Mr.  Webster  followed  it  up  with  a  private  letter 
to  Mr.  Macgregor  of  Glasgow,  expressing  a  wish  that 
the  British  government  might  see  fit  to  offer  the  49th 
parallel  as  a  boundary  line.  The  letter  was  shown 
to  Lord  Aberdeen,  who  adopted  the  suggestion,  and 
the  dispute  accordingly  ended  in  the  partition  of 
Oregon  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 
During  the  operations  on  the  Texas  frontier,  which 
brought  on  war  with  Mexico,  Mr.  Webster  was  absent 
from  Washington.  In  the  summer  of  1847  ne  travelled 
through  the  Southern  states,  and  was  everywhere  re 
ceived  with  much  enthusiasm.  He  opposed  the  prose 
cution  of  the  war  for  the  sake  of  acquiring  more 
territory,  because  he  foresaw  that  such  a  policy  must 
speedily  lead  to  a  dangerous  agitation  of  the  slavery 
question.  The  war  brought  General  Zachary  Taylor 
into  the  foreground  as  a  candidate  for  the  presidency, 
and  some  of  the  Whig  managers  actually  proposed  to 
nominate  Mr.  Webster  as  Vice-president  on  the  same 
ticket  with  General  Taylor.  He  indignantly  refused 
to  accept  such  a  proposal ;  but  Mr.  Clay's  defeat  in 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  403 

1844  had  made  many  Whigs  afraid  to  take  him  again 
as  a  candidate,  Mr.  Webster  was  thought  to  be  al 
together  too  independent,  and  there  was  a  feeling 
that  General  Taylor  was  the  most  available  candidate 
and  the  only  one  who  could  supplant  Mr.  Clay.  These 
circumstances  led  to  Taylor's  nomination,  which  Mr. 
Webster  at  first  declined  to  support.  He  disapproved 
of  soldiers  as  Presidents,  and  characterized  the  nomi 
nation  as  "one  not  fit  to  be  made."  At  the  same  time 
he  was  far  from  ready  to  support  Mr.  Van  Buren  and 
the  Free-soil  party,  yet  in  his  situation  some  decided 
action  was  necessary.  Accordingly,  in  his  speech  at 
Marshfield,  September  i,  1848,  he  declared  that,  as 
the  choice  was  really  between  General  Taylor  and 
General  Cass,  he  should  support  the  former.  It  has 
been  contended  that  in  this  Mr.  Webster  made  a 
great  mistake,  and  that  his  true  place  in  this  canvass 
would  have  been  with  the  Free-soil  party.  He  had 
always  been  opposed  to  the  further  extension  of 
slavery ;  but  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mirfd  that  he  looked 
with  dread  upon  the  rise  of  an  antislavery  party  that 
should  be  supported  only  in  the  Northern  states. 
Whatever  tended  to  array  the  North  and  the  South  in 
opposition  to  each  other,  Mr.  Webster  wished  espe 
cially  to  avoid.  The  ruling  purpose  of  his  life  was  to 
do  what  he  could  to  prevent  the  outbreak  of  a  con 
flict  that  might  end  in  the  disruption  of  the  Union; 
and  it  may  well  have  seemed  that  there  was  more 
safety  in  sustaining  the  Whig  party  in  electing  its 
candidate  by  the  aid  of  Southern  votes,  than  in  help 
ing  into  life  a  new  party  that  should  be  purely  sectional. 
At  the  same  time,  this  cautious  policy  soon  came  to 
involve  an  amount  of  concession  to  Southern  demands 


404  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

far  greater  than  the  rapidly  growing  antislavery  senti 
ment  in  the  Northern  states  would  readily  tolerate. 
No  doubt  Mr.  Webster's  policy  in  1848  pointed  logi 
cally  toward  his  last  great  speech,  March  7,  1850,  in 
which  he  supported  Mr.  Clay's  elaborate  compromises 
for  disposing  of  the  difficulties  which  had  grown  out 
of  the  vast  extension  of  territory  consequent  upon  the 
Mexican  War.  This  speech  aroused  intense  indigna 
tion  at  the  North,  and  especially  in  Massachusetts.  It 
was  regarded  by  many  people  as  a  deliberate  sacrifice 
of  principle  to  policy.  In  order  to  secure  the  admis 
sion  of  California  to  the  Union  as  a  free  state,  it  had 
been  thought  necessary  to  make  some  grave  conces 
sions  to  the  Southerners,  and  among  these  concessions 
was  the  fugitive  slave  law,  to  which  Mr.  Webster,  out 
of  his  overmastering  desire  to  serve  the  Union  and 
avoid  Civil  War,  felt  himself  obliged  to  yield  a  reluc 
tant  consent.  It  was  the  saddest  moment  in  his 
career,  and  covered  him  with  obloquy  such  as  has 
sufficed  in  many  minds  to  dim  and  obscure  his  great 
fame.  For  ordinary  men  to  succumb  under  the  stress 
of  Southern  bluster  and  dictation  might  seem  pardon 
able  ;  but  it  was  felt  that  Daniel  Webster  should  have 
been  capable  of  better  things.  The  swelling  tide  of 
popular  sentiment  in  Massachusetts  found  expression 
in  the  pathetic  but  terrible  sermon  of  Theodore 
Parker,  preached  just  after  Webster's  death.  Let  us 
listen,  after  these  fifty  years,  to  the  words  of  the 
preacher.  "  Do  men  now  mourn  for  him,  the  great 
man  eloquent?  I  put  on  sackcloth  long  ago.  I 
mourned  when  he  spoke  the  speech  of  the  Seventh 
of  March.  I  mourned  for  him  when  the  fugitive 
slave  •  bill  passed  Congress,  .  .  .  when  the  kidnap- 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  405 

pers  first  came  to  Boston,  .  .  .  when  Ellen  Craft  fled 
to  my  house  for  shelter  and  for  succour,  and  for  the 
first  time  in  all  my  life  I  armed  this  hand.  ...  I 
mourned  when  the  court-house  was  hung  in  chains; 
when  Thomas  Sims,  from  his  dungeon,  sent  out  his 
petition  for  prayers,  and  the  churches  did  not  dare 
to  pray.  I  mourned  when  that  poor  outcast  in  yonder 
dungeon  sent  for  me  to  visit  him,  and  when  I  took 
him  by  the  hand  which  Daniel  Webster  was  chaining 
in  that  hour.  I  mourned  for  Webster  when  we  prayed 
our  prayer  and  sang  our  psalm  on  Long  Wharf  in  the 
morning's  gray.  I  mourned  then;  I  shall  not  cease 
to  mourn.  The  flags  will  be  removed  from  the  streets, 
the  cannon  will  sound  their  other  notes  of  joy;  but  for 
me,  I  shall  go  mourning  all  my  days.  I  shall  refuse 
to  be  comforted.  O  Webster!  Webster!  would  God 
that  I  had  died  for  thee !  " 

There  is  no  sense  in  which  these  words  of  the  great 
scholar  and  preacher  find  a  ready  response  in  the 
hearts  of  all  of  us  to-day.  When  we  look  only  at  the 
simple  fact  that  the  demon  of  slavery  had  conjured 
American  politics  into  such  a  hopeless  coil  that  a  head 
so  clear  and  a  heart  so  kind  as  Daniel  Webster's  could 
for  a  moment  be  beguiled  into  making  terms  with  it, 
our  feeling  is  likely  to  be  that  which  Parker  expressed 
with  such  intensity.  But  is  such  a  feeling  really  just 
to  Webster?  Is  it  the  kind  of  feeling  which  the  his 
torian  ought  to  entertain  toward  him  ?  I  think  not. 
When  Mr.  Parker  published  his  sermon,  a  few  months 
afterward,  he  said  in  his  preface  that  he  was  not  so 
vain  as  to  fancy  that  he  had  never  been  mistaken  in 
his  judgments  upon  Mr.  Webster's  actions  or  motives; 
the  next  generation  would  be  better  able  to  judge  that 


406  DANIEL   WEBSTER 

statesman  than  his  own  contemporaries.  And  curi 
ously  enough,  Mr.  Parker  added,  by  way  of  illustration, 
"  Thomas  Hutchinson  and  John  Adams  are  better 
known  now  than  at  the  day  of  their  death ;  five  and 
twenty  years  hence  they  will  both  be  better  known 
than  at  present."  Of  course  the  maker  of  this 
prophecy  could  not  have  dreamed  of  such  a  revolution 
as  has  since  overtaken  Hutchinson's  reputation  in  the 
eyes  of  enlightened  critics.  The  grand  old  Tory  gov 
ernor  we  no  longer  scout  as  a  turncoat  and  traitor, 
but  we  honour  him  for  the  conscientious  steadfastness 
with  which  he  pursued  a  policy  which  we  nevertheless 
pronounce  mistaken.  In  Webster's  case  I  believe  we 
may  go  farther,  and  call  his  Seventh  of  March  speech 
not  only  brave  and  honest,  but  statesmanlike  and 
sound.  When  political  passion  finds  free  vent,  it  is 
apt  to  ascribe  to  men  the  lowest  of  motives.  So  Mr. 
Webster  was  accused  of  sacrificing  his  convictions  and 
truckling  to  the  South,  in  order  to  obtain  Southern 
support  for  the  presidency.  But  a  comprehensive 
survey  of  his  political  career  renders  such  an  interpre 
tation  highly  improbable.  His  conduct  in  remaining 
in  Mr.  Tyler's  cabinet  was  one  of  the  capital  instances 
of  moral  courage  to  be  found  in  American  history; 
and  his  habitual  independence  of  party  was  not  the 
sort  of  thing  that  is  wont  to  characterize  timid  seekers 
after  the  presidency.  That  Mr.  Webster  strongly 
wished  to  be  President  is  not  to  be  denied ;  but  his 
mental  attitude  was  the  proud  one  that  rather  claimed 
it  as  a  right  than  asked  it  as  a  favour.  It  was  like  the 
feeling  of  the  soldier  whose  unexampled  services  have 
earned  the  right  to  assume  the  weightiest  responsibility 
in  the  widest  field  of  action.  I  do  not  believe  that 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF  UNION  407 

Mr.  Webster  ever  sacrificed  his  convictions  to  selfish 
or  unworthy  motives.  That  he  now  and  then  sacri 
ficed  certain  convictions  to  certain  other  convictions, 
when  he  felt  himself  driven  to  such  a  bitter  alternative, 
I  would  freely  admit ;  but  that  is  a  very  different  thing. 
In  1850  he  subordinated  his  feelings  about  slavery, 
just  as  in  1828  he  had  subordinated  his  views  on  the 
tariff  to  the  paramount  necessity  of  saving  the  Union. 
In  the  later  instance,  as  in  the  earlier,  there  was  immi 
nent  danger  of  nullification  or  secession  on  the  part  of 
South  Carolina;  and  in  1850  there  was  added  danger 
that  the  Gulf  states  might  follow  the  lead  of  their  im 
placable  sister.  Compromise  seemed  necessary.  We 
have  seen  that,  as  in  1833,  Mr.  Webster  did  not  always 
approve  of  compromises ;  but  there  was  a  special 
reason  for  supporting  those  of  Mr.  Clay  in  1850.  They 
seemed  to  Mr.  Webster  a  conclusive  settlement  of  the 
slavery  question.  The  whole  territory  of  the  United 
States,  as  he  said,  was  now  covered  with  compromises, 
and  the  future  destiny  of  every  part,  so  far  as  the  legal 
introduction  of  slavery  was  concerned,  seemed  to  be 
decided.  As  for  the  regions  to  the  west  of  Texas,  he 
believed  that  slavery  was  ruled  out  by  natural  condi 
tions  of  soil  and  climate,  so  that  it  was  not  necessary 
to  protect  them  by  a  Wilmot  proviso.  As  for  the 
fugitive  slave  law,  it  was  simply  a  provision  for  carry 
ing  into  effect  a  clause  of  the  Constitution,  without 
which  that  instrument  could  never  have  been  adopted 
and  in  the  frequent  infraction  of  which  Mr.  Webster 
saw  a  serious  danger  to  the  continuance  of  the  Union. 
He  therefore  accepted  the  fugitive  slave  law  as  one 
feature  in  the  proposed  system  of  compromises;  but  in 
accepting  it  he  offered  amendments  which,  if  they  had 


408  DANIEL   WEBSTER 

been  adopted,  would  have  gone  far  toward  depriving  it 
of  its  most  obnoxious  and  irritating  features.  By 
adopting  these  measures  of  compromise,  Mr.  Webster 
believed  that  the  extension  of  slavery  would  have  been 
given  its  final  limit,  that  the  North  would  by  reason 
of  its  free  labour  increase  in  preponderance  over  the 
South,  and  that  by  and  by  the  institution  of  slavery, 
hemmed  in  and  denied  further  expansion,  would  die  a 
natural  death.  That  these  views  were  mistaken,  the 
events  of  the  next  ten  years  showed  only  too  plainly ; 
but  how  easy  it  is  to  be  wise  after  the  event,  and  how 
completely  the  result  of  a  great  struggle,  such  as  our 
Civil  War,  casts  into  shadow  the  thoughts  and  motives 
of  men  whose  lives  were  ended  before  it  began,  can 
only  be  well  understood  by  the  student  whose  view  is 
accustomed  to  range  far  and  wide  over  the  field  of 
history.  In  order  to  understand  Mr.  Webster's  posi 
tion,  we  must  put  ourselves  back,  in  imagination,  to 
that  time  when  the  doing  away  with  that  relic  of  bar 
barism,  negro  slavery,  seemed  as  far  off  as  the  doing 
away  with  its  twin  sister,  protectionism,  seems  to  many 
of  us  to-day.  Looking  at  Mr.  Webster's  acts  in  such 
a  spirit,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  compromises 
which  he  sustained  had  their  practical  value  in  post 
poning  the  inevitable  conflict  for  ten  years,  during 
which  the  relative  strength  of  the  North  was  increasing, 
and  a  younger  generation  was  growing  up  less  tolerant 
of  slavery  and  more  ready  to  discard  palliatives  and 
achieve  a  radical  cure.  So  far  as  Mr.  Webster's  moral 
attitude  was  concerned,  although  he  was  not  prepared 
for  the  bitter  hostility  that  his  speech  provoked  in 
many  quarters,  he  must  nevertheless  have  known  that 
it  was  quite  as  likely  to  injure  him  at  the  North  as  to 


AND   THE   SENTIMENT   OF   UNION  409 

gain  support  for  him  in  the  South ;  and  his  resolute 
adoption  of  a  policy  that  he  regarded  as  national 
rather  than  sectional  was  really  an  instance  of  high 
moral  courage.  It  was,  however,  a  concession  that 
did  violence  to  his  sentiments  of  humanity,  and  the 
pain  and  uneasiness  it  occasioned  is  visible  in  some  of 
his  latest  utterances. 

On  President  Taylor's  death,  July  9,  1850,  Mr. 
Webster  became  President  Fillmore's  Secretary  of 
State.  An  earnest  attempt  was  made,  on  the  part 
of  his  friends,  to  secure  his  nomination  for  the  presi 
dency  in  1852;  but  on  the  first  ballot  in  the  conven 
tion  he  received  only  29  votes,  while  there  were  131 
for  General  Scott,  and  133  for  Mr.  Fillmore.  The 
efforts  of  Mr.  Webster's  adherents  succeeded  only  in 
giving  the  nomination  to  Scott.  The  result  was  a 
grave  disappointment  to  Mr.  Webster.  He  refused  to 
support  the  nomination,  and  took  no  part  in  the  cam 
paign.  His  health  was  now  rapidly  failing.  He  left 
Washington,  September  8,  for  the  last  time,  and  re 
turned  to  Marshfield,  which  he  never  left  again,  except 
on  September  20,  for  a  brief  call  upon  his  physician 
in  Boston. 

On  the  24th  of  October,  1852,  he  died,  and  on  the  next 
day  flags  in  all  towns  that  had  caught  the  sad  news 
were  at  half-mast.  I  was  a  little  boy  then,  and  had 
never  been  in  Boston  or  seen  Mr.  Webster;  but  I 
could  not  forget  that  day  if  I  were  to  live  a  thousand 
years.  Daniel  Webster  was  dead.  A  godlike  pres 
ence  had  gone  from  us.  Life  seemed  smaller,  lonelier, 
and  meaner.  I  well  remember  catching  myself  won 
dering  how  the  sun  could  rise  and  the  daily  events  of 
life  go  on  without  Daniel  Wrebster. 


INDEX 


Aberdeen,  Lord,  400,  402. 

Adams,  John,  urges  appointment  of 
Washington  as  commander-in-chief, 
70-71  ;  letter  from,  to  Charles  Lee, 
75 ;  jealousy  between  Hamilton  and, 
136-137,  174;  death  of,  181;  aristo 
cratic  notion  of  location  of  political 
power,  223  ;  Webster's  eulogy  on, 
380. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  215,  311;  as 
Monroe's  Secretary  of  State  upholds 
Jackson's  course  in  Florida,  257 ; 
elected  President,  281-282;  "prince 
and  protagonist  of  mugwumps,"  322; 
and  policy  of  internal  improvements, 
323;  as  a  member  of  Congress  in 
President  Tyler's  administration,  358. 

Adams,  Samuel  (the  elder),  17-18. 

Adams,  Samuel  (the  younger),  152,  154, 
176;  British  opinion  of,  5;  elected  a 
member  of  the  legislature,  31  ;  at 
tempt  to  arrest  and  send  to  England 
for  trial,  32  ;  demands  removal  of 
soldiers  from  Boston,  35  ;  replies  to 
Hutchinson's  defence  of  supremacy 
of  Parliament,  36-37;  Hutchinson's 
criticisms  of,  in  letters  to  Thomas 
Whately,  37  ;  carries  resolutions 
looking  to  a  Continental  Congress, 
101  ;  as  a  Federalist,  168-169. 

Aix-la-Chapelle,  treaty  of,  20. 

Alabama,  admission  of,  to  Union,  271. 

Albany  Congress  of  1754,  23,  200. 

Alien  and  sedition  laws,  the,  135-136, 
174,  211-213. 

Ambrister,  Robert,  256,  257,  261-262. 

"  Arjaerican  Notes,"  Dickens's,  275. 

"American  system,"  the,  323,  382-383. 

Andre,  Major,  Hamilton's  acquaintance 
ship  with,  112. 


Annapolis  convention  of  1786,  117-118, 
196. 

Anti-federalism,  the  beginning  of,  117, 
1 68;  Governor  George  Clinton  a 
champion  of,  118-119,  124;  Me- 
lanchthon  Smith  defends,  125  ;  the 
Waterloo  of,  125. 

Antinomians,  365. 

"  Anything  to  beat  Van  Buren,"  349. 

Arbuthnot,  Alexander,  256,  257,  261- 
262. 

"Aristocracy  of  office,"  theory  of  an, 
289. 

Armstrong,  Secretary  of  War,  241,  245. 

Arnold,  Benedict,  comparative  dignity 
of  character  of,  beside  that  of  Charles 
Lee,  97-98. 

Ashburton  treaty,  399-400. 

Assumption  of  state  debts  by  federal 
government,  127-130;  Madison  op 
posed  to,  208-209. 


B 


Badger,  George  E.,  356. 

Bancroft,  George,  23. 

Bank,  National,  established  by  Hamil 
ton  and  Gouverneur  Morris,  114, 
133;  opposed  by  Madison,  209; 
Jackson's  opposition  to  and  attacks 
on,  235,  236,  302-303  ;  removal  of 
deposits  from,  304,  336-337  ;  com 
ments  on  destruction  of,  311  ;  ques 
tion  of  rechartering  in  1811,  329; 
Tyler's  opposition  to,  336-338; 
President  Tyler  and,  352-353;  per 
manent  defeat  of,  357. 

Bank,  Fiscal,  353-356. 

Banking,  wildcat,  in  early  New  Eng 
land,  13-22;  enormous  development 
of,  before  panic  of  1837,  34^-  Sfe 
Bank,  National. 


411 


412 


INDEX 


Barre,  town  of,  originally  named  Hutch- 

inson,  47. 
Barrington,  Lord,  Charles  Lee's   letter 

to,  71-72. 
Barry,  W.  T.,  286. 
Bayard,  Richard  H.,  353. 
Belcher,  Governor  Jonathan,  14-20. 
Bell,  John,  356. 
Bellamy,  Dr.  Joseph,  374. 
Bennet  Street  Grammar  School,  Boston, 

10,  47. 

Bentham,  Jeremy,  44. 
Benton,  Thomas  H.,  283,  302,  325,  334, 

336,  337,  338,  360,  383,  38%  392; 

early  affray  with  Jackson,  241-242; 

persistency  in   having    resolution  of 

censure  on  Jackson  expunged,  305- 

306. 
Bernard,  Governor  Francis,  25,  28,  30, 

31*  34- 

Berrien,  J.  M.,  285,  292. 
Bibles,  old  ladies  in  Connecticut  hide,  on 

election  of  Jefferson,  175. 
Birney,  James,  350. 

Blair,  Francis  Preston,  295,  325,  336,360. 
Blount,  William,  231. 
"  Boiling  Water,"  Mohawk  nickname  of 

Charles  Lee,  6p. 
Boone,  Daniel,  223. 
Boott,  Dr.  Francis,  390  n. 
Boston  Massacre,  the,  34-35. 
Botts,  John  Minor,  354. 
Brackenridge,  H.  M.,  280. 
Branch,  John,  285,  292. 
Braddock's    defeat,    58 ;      recalled    by 

Madison  as  a  boy,  189. 
Brent,  Richard,  329,  338. 
"Brother  Jonathan,"  Trumbull  the  orig 
inal,  12. 

Brown,  Rev.  Francis,  374. 
Bryant,  William  Cullen,  309. 
Bunbury,  Sir  William,  63. 
Bunker  Hill  orations,  Webster's,  380. 
Burgoyne,  General,  as  a  target  for  silly 

remarks  by  American  historians,  5; 

Charles  Lee  in   Portugal  with,  63; 

Charles    Lee's     correspondence    in 

America  with,  74. 
Burke,  Edmund,  at  famous  meeting  of 

privy  council,  44;  Charles  Lee  writes 


to,  69;  "Letters  on  a  Regicide 
Peace,"  166. 

Burr,  Aaron,  138,  175;  elected  Vice- 
president,  139;  prevented  by  Hamil 
ton  from  becoming  governor  of  New 
York,  140;  duel  with  Hamilton,  140; 
visit  to  Andrew  Jackson,  240. 

Butler,  Colonel  Edward,  290-291. 


"  Cabbage-planting  enterprise,"  Charles 
Lee  derides  expedition  against 
Louisburg  as  a,  60. 

Cabinet,  Hamilton  and  Jefferson  in 
Washington's,  125,  167;  Jackson's 
first,  285;  the  "kitchen,"  286,  295; 
Jackson's  second,  293-294;  resigna 
tion  of  members  of  Tyler's,  356, 
400-401. 

Calhoun,  elected  Vice-president,  281; 
reflected,  285;  misrepresented  to 
Jackson,  291-292;  succeeds  Hayne 
in  Senate,  298. 

Campbell,  G.  W.,  unpublished  letter  of 
Jackson's  to,  259-264. 

Capitalists,  Hamilton  aimed  at  alliance 
of  government  with,  130.  See  Plu 
tocracy. 

Capitals,  state,  reason  for  location  of, 
162. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  on   Daniel   \Vebsteir, 

389. 

Carr,  Dabney,  163,  180. 
Cass,  Lewis,  294. 
Censure,    resolution    of,    on    President 

Jackson,  305-306,   338,   396. 
Charleston,  Charles  Lee  at  battle  of,  77- 

78. 

Chatham,  Lord,  admiration  of  Ameri 
cans  for,  4. 
Cherokee     Indians,    disputes    between 

Georgia  and,   296. 
Chesapeake,  affair  of  the,  214. 
Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal,  origin  of, 

196. 

Choate,  Rufus,  353,  402. 
Chotzim,  Charles  Lee  at  battle  of,  66. 
Church,  disestablishment  of,  in  Virginia, 

159-160,  190-191. 


INDEX 


413 


Cities,  growth  of,  in  United  States,  309, 

344- 

Civil  service,  previous  to  Jackson's 
administration,  287-288;  Jackson's 
treatment  of,  288-290;  in  Harrison- 
Tyler  administration,  350-351. 

Clay,  Henry,  chosen  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  215;  be 
ginning  of  feud  between  Jackson 
and,  258,  279;  candidacy  of,  for  pres 
idency.  281 ;  becomes  J.  Q.  Adams's 
Secretary  of  State,  283;  charged  with 
making  a  bargain  with  Adams,  283- 
284;  forces  United  States  Bank  ques 
tion  to  the  foreground,  302;  candi 
date  for  presidency  a  second  time, 
303;  carries  resolution  of  censure  on 
Jackson,  305,  338;  election  of  Harri 
son  considered  a  victory  for,  351; 
struggle  with  Tyler,  351-358. 

Cleveland,  Grover,  174-175. 

Clinton,  De  Witt,  216. 

Clinton,  George,  as  an  Anti-federalist, 
118-119,  1 68;  elected  Vice-presi 
dent,  215. 

Clinton,  Sir  Henry,  succeeds  Lord  Howe 
in  America,  87;  possibility  of  an  un 
derstanding  with  Lee  at  Monmouth, 

92-93- 

Coddington,  William,  8. 

Commerce,  difficulties  in  regulating  inter 
state,  at  close  of  Revolution,  196-198. 

Compromise  act  of  1833,  358. 

Connecticut  compromise,  the,  202. 

Constitution  of  United  States,  Madison's 
share  in  framing,  122. 

"  Const  it  u  ion  not  a  Compact  between 
Sovereign  States,"  Webster's,  393- 

394- 

Conway,  Thomas,  56. 
Conway  cabal,  the,  79,  87. 
Cooper,  James  Fennimore,  309. 
Cooper,  Dr.  Myles,  69,  108. 
Cornwallis,  Lord,  silliness  of  remarks  by 

some  historians  as  applied  to,  5;   in 

Virginia,  163. 

"Corporal's  guard,  the,"  357. 
Cotton,  John,  7. 
Crawford,  W.  H.,  253,  280  n.,  281,  286, 

383. 


Creeks,    Jackson's    campaign    against, 

243-244. 

"  Crime  and  Punishment,"  Beccaria's,  64. 
Crimes  act,  the,  381. 
Crisis  of  1837,  343-348. 
Cnttenden,  John  J.,  356. 
Crockett,  David,  244. 
Cruger,  Nicholas,  104. 
"  Cruising  convention,"  the,  400. 
Currency,  decimal,  devised  by  Jefferson 

and  Gouverneur  Morris,  164. 
|  Curtis,  Benjamin,  50. 
Gushing,  Thomas,  receives  the  Whately 

letters,  39. 


I) 


Dartmouth,  Lord,  meets  Hutchinson  in 
London,  47. 

Dartmouth  College,  Webster  graduated 
from,  368. 

Dartmouth  College  case,  the,  373-379. 

Day,  James,  quoted,  271  n. 

Debt,  payment  of  national,  in  1835,  344- 

Debts,  of  United  States,  at  close  of 
Revolution,  126,  192-193;  assump 
tion  of  state,  127-130;  assumption 
of  state,  opposed  by  Madison,  208- 
209. 

Declaration  of  Independence  drawn  up 
by  Jefferson,  155-157. 

De  Kalb,  56. 

Democrats,  origin  of  the,  324-325. 

"Demos   Krateo"  principle,   the,  337, 

395- 

Deposits,  removal  of,  from  United  States 
Bank,  304,  336-337;  results  of  re 
moval  of,  346. 

Dickens,  Charles,  comments  on  America, 

275- 
Dickinson,  Charles,  Jackson's  duel  with, 

239- 
Disestablishment  of  Church  in  Virginia, 

159-160;  Madison's  connection  with, 

190-191. 

Dix,  John  A.,  extract  from  letter  of,  280  n. 
"  Domestic  Manners  of  the  Americans," 

Mrs.  Trollope's,  275. 
Donoughmore,  Irish  earls  of,  7. 
Draper,  Dr.  Lyman,  188. 


INDEX 


Dress,  Webster's  style  of,  270,  389  n. 

Dryden,  Sir  Erasmus,  7. 

Duane,  W.  J.,  304,  396. 

Duel,  Charles  Lee's,  in  Vienna,  66-67  > 
Lee  declines  to  fight,  with  Steuben, 
94  ;  Lee  wounded  by  Laurens  in  a, 
95,  in-112;  Hamilton's  son  killed 
in  a,  139  ;  the  Burr-Hamilton,  140- 
141  ;  Andrew  Jackson's,  with  Avery, 
238 ;  Jackson  challenges  General 
Scott  to  a,  253  ;  between  John  Ran 
dolph  and  Henry  Clay,  283  ;  Jackson 
dies  as  result  of  a  wound  received  in 
a,  308  ;  Randolph  challenges  Web 
ster  to  a,  372. 

Duels,  plan  to  kill  Hamilton  by  a  series 
of,  117;  discredited  in  Northern 
states  as  a  result  of  Hamilton's 
death,  141  ;  caused  by  the  "  Mrs. 
Eaton  "  episode,  292. 


E 


Eastman,  Abigail,  367. 

Eaton,  John  H.,  285,  290,  292. 

Eaton,  Mrs.  John  H.,  episode  of,  290- 

294. 

Eliot,  Rev.  Andrew,  30. 
Eliot  school,  Boston,  originally  named 

the  Hutchinson,  47. 
Ellsworth,  William,  190. 
Embargo,  Jefferson's,  214-215,  278,322; 

Webster's  pamphlet  criticising,  369- 

370 ;  jingle  about  the,  369  n. 
England,  yeomanry  and  country  squires 

of,  compared   with    French   classes, 

145-148 ;    arrogance  of,  in  War  of 

1812,  247-248. 
Entail,  system  of,  in  Virginia,  abolished, 

157-158. 

"  Era  of  good  feeling,"  the,  279. 
Erie  Canal,  results  of  completion  of,  344. 
Everett,  Edward,  399. 
Ewing,  Thomas,  353,  356. 
Exeter  Academy,  Webster  at,  367. 


Farmer    Refuted,  The,"    Hamilton's, 
107-108. 


Farragut,  David,  sent  to  South  Carolina 
by  Jackson,  298. 

"Federalist,"  the,  122-123,  J88,  204. 

Federalist  party,  building  up  of,  114- 
125,  1 68;  victory  of,  over  Anti- 
federalists,  125  ;  cause  of  downfall 
of,  134;  absorbed  by  Republican 
party,  207,  215. 

Fiscal  corporation  bill,  353-355. 

Florida,  base  for  British  operations  in 
War  of  1812,  245;  Jackson  drives 
British  from,  245-246;  in  1816  be 
comes  a  nest  of  outlaws,  253-254 ; 
invaded  by  Jackson  in  1818,  255- 
257 ;  purchased  by  United  States 
from  Spain,  258. 

Floyd,  John,  303,  334. 

Foote,  Samuel  A.,  386. 

Foote's  resolutions,  297,  386-387. 

Force  Bill,  the,  335-336,  391. 

Fort  Bowyer,  British  defeat  at,  245. 

Forward,  Walter,  356. 

France,  peasantry  of,  compared  with 
yeomanry  of  England,  145-148; 
Jefferson's  sojourn  in,  164—165;  Jack 
son  settles  American  difficulties  with, 
307-308. 

P'rankland,  Sir  Harry,  house  of,  28. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  a  delegate  to  Albany 
Congress,  23  ;  comes  into  possession 
of  Whately's  correspondence,  38- 
39  ;  abused  by  Wedderburn  before 
privy  council,  44-45  ;  dismissed  from 
postmaster-generalship,  45  ;  descrip 
tion  of  Earl  of  Loudoun,  60  ;  letter 
from,  to  Charles  Lee,  76 ;  a  proto 
type  of  the  "  franklins  "  of  England, 
146—147 ;  Jefferson  succeeds,  in 
France,  164. 

Franklins,  the,  in  England,  146. 

Free  trade  speech,  Webster's,  382-383. 

Fugitive  slave  law,  Webster's  attitude 
on,  404-409. 

Fulton,  Robert,  271. 


"  Gag  resolution,"  the,  342. 
Gage,  Thomas,  serves  under  Braddock 
in    America    as    lieutenant-colonel, 


INDEX 


415 


58;   in   battle  of  Ticonderoga,  61; 
takes  command  in  Boston,  46,  101. 

Gallatin,  Albert,  223. 

Gallicism,  Jefferson's  so-called,  155-157. 

Gantt,  Colonel  Thomas  Tasker,  259, 
264;  Mrs.  E.  B.  Lee's  letter  to, 
quoted,  292  n.,  298  n. 

Gates,  Horatio,  first  acquaintance  of 
Charles  Lee  with,  58;  Charles  Lee's 
friendship  with,  70 ;  Hamilton  re 
gains  Washington's  troops  from,  ill. 

George  III.,  accession  of,  to  throne, 
25-26. 

Georgia,  disputes  with  Cherokee  Ind 
ians  in.  296. 

Giles,  William  E.,  329,  338. 

Girdlestone,  Dr.  Thomas,  on  Charles 
Lee  as  the  author  of  "  Letters  of 
Junius,"  96-97. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  end  of  army  purchase 
system  by,  60. 

Gore,  Christopher,  369. 

Gower,  Lord  President  of  privy  council, 
44. 

Granger,  Francis,  356. 

Grayson,  William,  206. 

Great  Britain,  arrogance  of,  in  War  of 
1812,  247-248. 

Green,  Duff,  286,  295. 

Greene,  D.  H.,  quoted  concerning  rela 
tionship  of  Charles  and  Robert  E. 
Lee,  57  n. 

Greene,  Nathanael,  mentions  Hamilton 
to  Washington,  109. 

Gridley,  Jeremiah,  25,  26. 

Griswold,  Roger,  242. 


H 


Hallo  well,  Briggs,  28. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  delivers  patriotic 
address  when  seventeen  years  of 
age,  103;  birth  and  family  of,  104; 
enters  King's  College,  106;  on 
Washington's  staff,  109-112;  mar 
ries  Elizabeth  Schuyler,  113;  admit 
ted  to  bar  in  Albany,  113  ;  aids  in 
'establishment  of  Bank  of  North 
America,  114,  133;  delegate  to  Con 
gress  in  1782,  114;  first  famous  law 


case,  116-117;  delegate  to  conven 
tions  at  Annapolis  and  Philadelphia, 
117—118;  joint  author  with  Madison 
of  "Federalist,"  122-123,  188,  204; 
wins  New  York  over  to  ratifying  fed 
eral  Constitution,  123-125;  Wash 
ington's  Secretary  of  Treasury,  125; 
proposal  for  federal  assumption  of 
state  debts,  127;  aims  to  insure  sta 
bility  of  government  by  alliance  with 
capitalists,  130;  an  advocate  of  pro 
tective  tariff,  132;  feud  with  Jeffer 
son,  134-135,  167-168;  jealousy 
between  John  Adams  and,  136—137, 
174;  killed  by  Burr  in  duel,  140. 
Hamilton,  Philip,  killed  in  a  duel, 

139. 

Hamiltonians,  comparison  of,  with 
Tories,  170-173. 

Hanging  Rock,  Jackson  present  at  fight 
of,  229. 

Harcourt,  Lieutenant-colonel,  capture 
of  Charles  Lee  by,  81-82. 

Hard  cider  campaign,  the,  349-350. 

Harrison,  William  Henry,  206,  242; 
birth  and  early  career  of,  340;  po 
litical  life,  341 ;  second  nomination 
for  presidency,  349;  elected  Presi 
dent,  350;  death  of,  351. 

"  Harry  of  the  West,"  278. 

Hartford  convention,  the,  247,^278,  322, 

371- 

Harvard  College,  Thomas  Hutchinson 
at,  n;  versus  the  backwoods,  as 
illustrated  by  J.  Q.  Adams  and  Jack 
son,  284. 

Hawke,  Lord  Edward,  12. 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  309. 

Hayne,  Robert  Y.,  387. 

"Hayne,  Reply  to."  See  "Reply  to 
Hayne." 

Hearts  of  Oak,  Hamilton  a  member  of 
the,  109. 

Heath,  General,  79-80. 

Henry,  Patrick,  British  opinion  of,  5; 
as  an  Anti-federalist,  168,  205,  206, 
372;  advocates  extension  of  powers 
of  federal  government,  208. 

Hermitage,  the,  Jackson's  home  at, 
308. 


416 


INDEX 


Hervey,  Lady,  a  cornet  in  British  regi 
ment  from  infancy,  57-58. 

Hill,  Isaac,  286. 

Holmes,  O.  W.,  309. 

Holy  Alliance,  Webster's  speech  against, 
381-382. 

Holy  Ground,  the,  244. 

Houston,  Samuel,  244. 

Howe,  Lord,  death  of,  in  battle  of  Ti- 
conderoga,  61. 

Howe,  Sir  William,  and  Charles  Lee, 
83-86. 

Hume,  David,  Charles  Lee's  epistle  to, 
64-65. 

Hutchinson,  Anne,  7-8. 

Hutchinson,  Thomas,  ancestry  of,  7-10; 
childhood  of,  lo-ii;  at  Harvard, 
11-12;  marriage,  12;  beginning  of 
public  life,  13;  member  of  General 
Court,  13-20;  Speaker  of  House, 
20-21;  member  of  council,  22;  resi 
dence  on  Milton  Hill,  22-23;  aP" 
pointed  judge  of  probate  and  justice 
of  common  pleas,  23  ;  loss  of  wife, 
23;  appointed  lieutenant-governor, 
24;  chief  justice,  25;  house  of, 
wrecked  by  a  mob,  30;  appointed 
governor  of  Massachusetts,  35;  and 
the  Boston  Massacre,  34-35;  mas 
terly  statement  of  doctrine  of  su 
premacy  of  Parliament,  36;  adjusts 
boundary  line  between  New  York 
and  Massachusetts,  37;  correspond 
ence  with  Thomas  Whately,  37-38; 
goes  to  England,  46;  met  by  Lord 
Dartmouth,  47;  refuses  a  baronetcy, 
48;  death  of,  49;  his  character  and 
intellectual  powers,  49-51  ;  analogy 
between  case  of,  and  Webster's,  406. 

Hutchinson  Mob,  the,  30-31. 

Hutchinson,  town  of,  name  changed  to 
Barre,  47. 

I 

Illinois,  admission  of,  to  Union,  271. 
Impost  law  of  1783,  proposed,  192-193. 
Indemnification  to  Charles  Lee,  Ameri 
can,  71-73,  78. 
"  Indian  War,"  Church's,  12. 
Indiana,  admission  of,  to  Union,  271. 


Ingham,  S.  D.,  285,  292. 

Internal  improvements,  policy  of,  323, 

371-372. 

"  lolanthe,"  quoted,  319-320. 
Irving,  Washington,  309. 
Izard,  Ralph,  on  Wedderburn's  abuse  of 

Franklin,  45. 


J 


Jackson,  Andrew,  family  of,  and  birth, 
228-229  >  prisoner  at  Camden  during 
Revolutionary  War,  230 ;  story  of 
the  British  officers  boots,  230  ;  stud 
ies  law  and  appointed  public  prose 
cutor  in  North  Carolina,  230  ;  story 
of  Mrs.  Robards,  232-234  ;  marriage, 
234  ;  representative  in  Congress  from 
Tennessee,  235  ;  elected  to  Senate, 
237 ;  Judge  in  Supreme  Court  of 
Tennessee,  238  ;  duel  with  Dickin 
son,  239-240  ;  in  War  of  1 812,  241  ; 
nicknamed  "  Old  Hickory,"  241  ;  in 
Creek  War,  243-245  ;  appointed 
major-general,  245  ;  at  battle  of  New 
Orleans,  250-251;  invades  Florida 
in  1818,  255-256  ;  beginning  of  feud 
with  Clay,  258,  279  ;  appointed  gov 
ernor  of  Florida,  258 ;  becomes 
United  States  Senator,  279  ;  defeated 
by  J.  Q.  Adams  for  presidency,  281- 
282;  defeats  Adams  in  1828,  285; 
death  of  Mrs.  Jackson,  291  ;  re- 
elected  President,  303  ;  death,  308  ; 
remarkable  character  of  the  period 
of  his  two  presidential  terms,  309 ; 
Webster's  support  of,  391-392. 

Jackson,  Mrs.  Andrew,  death  of,  291. 
See  Robards,  Mrs.  Lewis. 

Jay,  John,  Hamilton  first  meets,  106 ; 
a  delegate  to  Continental  Congress, 
152-153  ;  essays  in  "  Federalist "  by, 
204. 

Jay's  treaty,  135,  209,  210,  235-236. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  birth  and  ancestry  of, 
150;  marriage,  151 ;  elected  delegate 
to  Continental  Congress,  152;  draws 
up  Declaration  of  Independence, 
155-157;  an  active  member  of  Vir 
ginia  legislature,  157-163;  governor 


INDEX 


417 


of  Virginia  in  1779,  163;  death  of 
wife,  163;  elected  to  Congress,  163; 
minister  to  France,  164-165;  be-  j 
comes  Washington's  Secretary  of 
State,  125, 167;  Vice-president,  174; 
presidential  campaign  of,  174-176; 
buys  the  Mississippi  territory  of  Na 
poleon,  177;  reelection  to  presi 
dency,  1 80;  death,  180;  Madison's 
intimacy  with,  189;  responsibility  of, 
for  theory  of  nullification,  212;  treat 
ment  of  civil  service  by,  287-288; 
mantle  of,  fell  on  Van  Buren,  311- 
312;  Webster's  eulogy  on,  380. 

Jeffersonians,  comparison  of,  with  Eng 
lish  Liberals,  170-173. 

Johnson,  George,  letter  from,  to  Charles 
Lee,  88. 

Johnson,  Richard,  342. 

Johnson,  Sir  William,  59. 

Judges,  election  of,  instead  of  appoint 
ment,  a  crying  abomination,  272. 


K 


Kant,  Immanuel,  on  Wedderburn's 
abuse  of  Franklin,  45. 

Kendall,  Amos,  286,  295,  304. 

Kentucky  resolutions  of  1798,  174,  211- 
213. 

King  Philip's  War,  9. 

King,  Rufus,  203,  278,  322. 

King's  College,  Dr.  Myles  Cooper  presi 
dent  of,  69,  108;  Hamilton  a  stu 
dent  at,  1 06. 

"  Kitchen  cabinet,"  Jackson's,  286 ; 
break  in  the,  295. 

Knox,  General  Henry,  in,  137. 

Knox,  Dr.  Hugh,  104,  105. 

Kosciuszko,  in  America,  56. 


Lafayette,  Marquis  de,  56,  88,  89;  love 
of,  for  Hamilton,  1 1 1 ;  innocent 
cause  of  disagreement  between 
Washington  and  Hamilton,  112. 

Land  Bank  of  1740,  16-17. 

Lang  worthy,  Edward,  66,  77. 

Lansing,  John,  119. 
2  E 


Laurens,  Colonel,  Charles  Lee's  duel 
with,  95,  in-112. 

Lee,  Charles,  wrongly  stated  to  be 
father  of  Robert  E.  Lee,  56-57;  an 
cestry  of,  57;  birth  of,  57;  com 
missioned  lieutenant  in  the  British 
army,  58;  in  America  with  Brad- 
dock's  army,  58  ;  adopted  by  Mo 
hawk  tribe,  59;  in  Earl  of  Loudoun's 
expedition  against  Louisburg,  60 ; 
wounded  in  battle  of  Ticonderuga, 
6 1 ;  narrow  escape  from  assassination 
on  Long  Island,  62 ;  return  to  Eng 
land  in  1761,  63  ;  with  Burgoyne  in 
Portugal,  63;  in  Poland,  66;  arrives 
in  America  in  1773,  67;  appointed 
second  major-general  in  Continental 
army,  70;  letter  to  Lord  Barrington, 
71—72;  service  in  Continental  army, 
74-81;  at  battle  of  Charleston,  77- 
78;  captured  by  British,  82;  con 
duct  during  captivity,  83-86 ;  ex 
changed  for  General  Richard  Pres- 
cott,  86;  treason  at  Monmouth,  89- 
91;  in  disgrace,  92;  death,  95;  pre 
tensions  to  authorship  of  "  Letters  of 
Junius,"  95-97  ;  Benedict  Arnold  a 
dignified  character  in  comparison 
with,  97-98. 

Lee,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  B.,  259;  letter  from, 
to  Colonel  Gantt,  quoted,  292  n., 
298  n. 

Lee,  Henry,  206,  303. 

Lee,  Richard  Henry,  155,  205. 

Lee,  Robert  E.,  Charles  Lee  wrongly 
stated  to  be  the  father  of,  56-57. 

Legare,  Hugh  S.,  356. 

Leigh,  Benjamin  Watkins,  338. 

Leopard,  affair  of  the,  214. 

Lepel,  Colonel,  makes  his  infant  daugh 
ter  a  cornet  in  British  regiment,  57. 

"  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,"  327. 

"  Letters  of  Junius,"  Charles  Lee  pre 
tends  to  authorship  of,  95-97. 

"  Letters  on  a  Regicide  Peace,"  Burke's, 
166. 

Lewis,  William  B.,  279,  286,  292. 

Liberalists,  English,  chief  character 
istics  of,  171-172. 

Lippe-Schaumburg,  Count  von,  63. 


4i8 


INDEX 


Literature,  the  blooming  time  of  Ameri 
can,  309. 

Little  Belt,  affair  of  the,  215. 

Livingston,  Edward,  249,  293. 

Log  cabin  campaign,  the,  349-350. 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  309. 

Louisburg,  fortress  of,  20-21;  Earl  of 
Loudoun's  expedition  against,  60. 

Louisiana  purchase,  177,  321. 

Loyalists,  American,  hard  position  of, 
in  history,  5-6. 

Lyon,  Matthew,  242. 


M 


McCarthy,  Daniel,  on  Charles  Lee  as 
author  of  "  Letters  of  Junius,"  96. 

McCay,  Spruce,  230. 

Macdougall,  Alexander,  103. 

McLane,  Louis,  293-294,  304. 

McLean,  John,  356. 

McMurdo,  Tyler's  schoolmaster,  328. 

Madison,  James,  157,  168,  176;  Ham 
ilton  first  comes  in  contact  with,  1 14; 
share  of,  in  framing  the  Constitution, 
122  ;  joint  author  with  Hamilton  of 
the  "  Federalist,"  122-123,  l88,  204; 
ancestry  of,  and  birth,  188;  intimacy 
with  Jefferson,  189;  at  Princeton 
College,  189;  entrance  to  public  life, 
190;  delegate  to  Continental  Con 
gress,  191  ;  member  of  Virginia  leg 
islature,  194;  delegate  to  Annapolis 
and  Philadelphia  conventions,  198; 
the  "  Virginia  plan "  devised  by, 
199-201  ;  services  in  securing  ratifi 
cation  of  Constitution  by  Virginia, 
204-206 ;  elected  to  first  national 
House  of  Representatives,  206; 
leader  of  the  opposition,  207-210; 
marriage,  210;  draws  up  Virginia  res 
olutions  of  1798,  210;  becomes  Jef 
ferson's  Secretary  of  State,  213-214; 
elected  President,  215 ;  reflected 
President,  216  ;  old  age,  217  ;  cause 
for  dislike  of  Jackson,  240. 

Maine,  admission  of,  to  Union,  271. 

Mangum,  Person,  341. 

Marcy,  W.  L.,  declares  that  "  to  the  vic 
tors  belong  the  spoils,"  288. 


Marshall,  Chief  Justice,  185,  186,  190, 

206 ;  ruling  of,  on  power  of  Federal 

government  to  acquire  territory,  1 78; 

the  Dartmouth  College  case  before, 

376-379- 

Marshfield,  Webster's  home  at,  397-398. 
"  Martin  Chuzzlewit  "  quoted,  275,  347. 
Maryland  convention  of  1776,  76-77. 
Mason,  Colonel  George,  157,  161,   198, 

206. 

Mason,  Jeremiah,  369,  375. 
Mather,  Rev.  Samuel,  30. 
Maysville  turnpike  bill,  334. 
Mifflin,  Thomas,  70. 
Milton,  Hutchinson's  residence  in,  22— 

23. 

Mimms,  Fort,  massacre  of,  243. 
Mississippi,  admission  of,  to  Union,  271. 
Mississippi    River,    free   navigation   of, 

177,  191-192,  199- 
Missouri,  admission  of,  to  Union,  271, 

330-332,  372. 

Missouri  Compromise  bill,  330-332. 
Mobile  occupied   by  General   Jackson, 

245- 

Mohawks,  Charles  Lee  and  the,  59-60. 

Monmouth  Court  House,  battle  of,  89- 
91. 

Monongahela,  battle  of  the,  58. 

Monroe,  James,  206,  322  ;  elected  Presi 
dent,  278. 

Monticello,  Jefferson's  home  at,  163, 
179-180. 

Montpelier,  Madison's  home  at,  210, 
217. 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  aids  in  establish 
ment  of  Bank  of  North  America, 
1 14 ;  subscribes  to  the  "  three-fifths 
rule,"  203  ;  singular  views  of,  as  to 
so-called  back-country  people,  221- 

222. 

Morris,  Robert,  lends  Charles  Lee 
^3000,  70 ;  aids  in  establishment  of 
Bank  of  North  America,  114. 

Morton,  Major  Jacob,  testimony  of,  con 
cerning  Washington  and  Lee  at 
Monmouth,  90  n. 

Moultrie,  Colonel  William,  77. 

Mugwumps,  J.  Q.  Adams  protagonist 
of,  322. 


INDEX 


419 


N 

National  bank.     See  Bank,  National. 

National  Republicans,  the,  324. 

Naturalization  in  United  States,  162- 
163. 

Navigation  of  Mississippi,  177,  191-192, 
199. 

Navigation  Acts,  trouble  caused  in  Bos 
ton  by  enforcement  of,  28. 

New  England  Confederacy,  8. 

"New  England  Memorial,"  Morton's, 
12. 

New  Orleans,  Jackson  at,  246,  248-252  ; 
battle  of,  250-251,  278. 

Newspaper,  development  of  modern  type 
of,  309. 

Non-intercourse  acts,  the,  215. 

Northeastern  boundary  question,  399- 
400. 

"Notes  on  Virginia,"  Jefferson's,  159- 
160, 164-165. 

Nullification  during  Jackson's  adminis 
trations,  295,  297-300,  312-313. 


Ohio,  admission  of,  to  Union,  271. 

Old  Corner  Bookstore,  Boston,  William 
Hutchinson's  house  on  site  of,  8. 

"Old  Hickory,"  Jackson  receives  nick 
name  of,  241. 

Oliver,  Andrew,  correspondence  between 
Thomas  Whately  and,  37-38. 

Ordinance  of  1787,  164,  225. 

Oregon  question,  the,  221,  402. 

Otis,  James,  25,  74-75. 

Overton,  Judge,  232,  238,  239-240,  255. 


Paine,  Thomas,  64. 

Pakenham,  Sir  Edward,  250,  251. 

Pamphleteer,  Charles  Lee  as  a,  64-65, 
73- 

Panic  of  1837,  343-348. 

Paper  money,  in  1690,  13 ;  in  New 
England  in  eighteenth  century,  13- 
15,  21-22 ;  issued  by  Continental 
Congress,  192-193;  virulent  craze 


for,  in  1786,  195-196;  before  panic 
of  1837,  345-347- 

Parker,  Theodore,  sermon  by,  on  Web 
ster  and  fugitive  slave  law,  404- 
405. 

Parkman,  Francis,  23. 

Parties,  political,  earliest  division  of 
American,  168  ;  comparison  of,  with 
English,  170-173  ;  division  into 
Whigs  and  Democrats,  295 ;  develop 
ment  of,  to  1832,  317-325. 

Paxton,  Charles,  correspondence  be 
tween  Thomas  Whately  and,  37- 
38. 

Pearl  Street,  Boston,  originally  named 
Hutchinson  Street,  47. 

Pendleton,  Edmund,  158,  206. 

Pensacola  captured  by  Jackson,  257, 
260-261. 

"  Pet  banks,"  the,  305. 

Philadelphia  convention  of  1787,  118, 
198. 

Phillips,  Stephen  C,  349  n. 

Pickering,  Timothy,  140,  141,  223,  277, 
2S6,  371. 

Pinckney,  Cotesworth,  137,  180,  203, 
215,  223. 

Pinckney,  Thomas,  203,  223  ;  candidacy 
of,  for  presidency,  136. 

Plutocracy,  gravest  danger  to  our  country 
is  a  government  by  a,  130,  179. 

"  Pocket  veto,"  Jackson's,  296. 

Poland,  Charles  Lee  in,  66. 

Potomac  Company,  the,  196. 

Pownall,  Governor  Thomas,  24-25. 

Presbyterian  junto,  the,  103. 

Prescott,  General  Richard,  Charles  Lee 
exchanged  for,  86. 

Prescott,  W.  H.,  309. 

President,  affair  ofthe,  215. 

Priestley,  Dr.,  44,  45. 

Primogeniture,  law  of,  in  Virginia,  at 
tacked  by  Jefferson,  158. 

Princeton  College,  Hamilton  applies  for 
admission  to,  106  ;  Madison  a  student 
at,  189. 

Protection  of  American  industries.  See 
Tariff,  protective. 

Provincialism,  period  of,  in  America, 
267-276. 


420 


INDEX 


Pulaski,  Count,  56. 

Purchase  system,  end  of,  in  British  army, 

60. 
Putnam,  Israel,  in  battle  of  Ticonderoga, 

61. 

Q 

Quincy,  Josiah,  178,  249. 


Railroads,  development    of,   in   United 

States,  309,  322-323,  344. 
Randolph,  Edmund,  198,  199,  206. 
Randolph,  John,  283,  333,  372. 
"  Religious    Freedom  Act,"   Madison's, 

194-195. 
"  Reply  to  Hayne,"  Webster's,  297,  312, 

387-39I- 

Republican  party,  absorbs  Federalists, 
207,  215;  divided  in  1824-1832  on 
questions  of  internal  improvements, 
tariff,  and  national  bank,  324. 

Revenue  question,  the,  131-133,  167, 
192-193. 

Revolution,  French,  166-167. 

Rhea,  John,  255. 

Richmond,  state  capital  of  Virginia  re 
moved  to,  162. 

Rives,  William  C,  343,  353. 

Rivington,  James,  108. 

Road-building,  era  of,  in  United  States, 

344- 

Robards,  Captain  Lewis,  232-234. 
Robards,  Mrs.   Rachel,   232-234,   290- 

291. 

Robertson,  Donald,  188. 
Robertson,  James,  223. 
Robertson,  William,  letter  from,  to  Dr. 

Fiske,  90  n. 
Rockingham,  Lord,  31. 
Rockingham  Memorial,  the,  370. 
Rodney,  Thomas,  conversation  of,  with 

Charles  Lee  concerning  "  Letters  of 

Junius,"  95-97. 
Rousseau,  Jefferson   not  in  same  class 

with,  154. 
Rush,  Dr.  Benjamin,  correspondence  of, 

with  Charles  Lee,  76,  79. 
Rutledge,  Edward,  76,  153,  203. 


Sargent,  Lucius  Manlius,  369  n. 

Schuyler,  Elizabeth,  marriage  of,  to 
Hamilton,  113. 

Schuyler,  Mrs.,  and  Charles  Lee,  61-62. 

Scotch-Irish  breed  in  the  West,  225, 
228. 

Scott,  John  Morin,  103. 

Scott,  General,  253,  298. 

Seabury,  Samuel,  107. 

Sears,  Isaac,  103,  108. 

Seventh  of  March  speech,  Webster's, 
404-406. 

Sevier,  John,  238-239. 

Shays's  rebellion,  118,  126,  199. 

Shepard,  Edward  M.,  348. 

Shirley,  Governor  William,  20. 

Slavery,  Jefferson  an  advocate  of  aboli 
tion  of,  158-159;  prohibited  north 
of  Ohio  River,  164;  Tyler's  views  of, 
330-332. 

Smith,  Goldwin,  misconception  of,  con 
cerning  Madison,  187. 

Smith,  Jeremiah,  375. 

Smith,  Melanchthon,  125. 

Southard,  William  L.,  356. 

South  Carolina,  ordinance  of  nullifica 
tion  in,  297-299,  326,  386-394. 

Specie  Bank  of  1740,  16-17. 

Specie  circular,  the,  347,  348. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  should  be  read  by 
every  American,  310. 

Spoils  system,  inauguration  of  the,  288. 

Stamp  Act,  opposition  to,  in  Boston, 
28-31. 

Stark,  John,  in  battle  of  Ticonderoga,  61. 

State  debts,  federal  assumption  of,  127- 
130. 

State  rights,  question  of,  in  Hamilton's 
time,  118-121. 

State  Rights  Whigs,  Southern  strict  con- 
structionists  call  themselves,  339; 
Tyler,  as  leader  of,  elected  V;  e-pres- 
ident,  349-350;  break  with  Northern 
Whigs  over  annexation  of  Texas, 
359  >  J°in  the  Democrats,  360. 

"Stepfather  of  his  country,"  Washing 
ton  called  the,  135. 

Steuben,  Baron  von,  88,  94,  in. 


INDEX 


42I 


Strachey,    Sir    Henry,   preservation   of 

Charles  Lee  papers  by,  72,  85. 
"Strictures  on  a   Friendly  Address  to 

all  Reasonable  Americans,"  Charles 

Lee's,  69. 
Subtreasuries,  establishment  of,  349;  bill 

for  abolishing,  passed,  352. 
"Summary  View  of  Rights  of  British 

America,  A,"  Jefferson's,  152. 
Surplus,  distribution  of,  346-347. 


Talladega,  battle  of,  243. 
Tallasahatchee,  battle  of,  243. 
Taney,  R.  B.,  294,  304. 
"Tariff  of  abominations,"  297,  334,  384. 
Tariff,  protective,  Hamilton  an  advocate 

of,  132  ;  Jackson  opposed  to  a,  297  ; 

Clay  favours,  323 ;  John  Tyler  and, 

332,357-358;  Webster's  attitude  on 

a,  37 J>  384-386. 
Tarleton,  Banastre,  81-82. 
Taylor,  Zachary,  402-403. 
Tazewell,  Littleton,  330. 
Tea  ships  in  Boston  harbour,  40—41. 
Tecumseh,  242-243,  341. 
Temple,   Mr.,    duel    of,   with    William 

Whately,  40. 

Tennessee  admitted  to  Union,  235. 
Thames,  battle  of  the,  243,  340-341. 
Thomas.  Captain  John,  397. 
"Three-fifths  rule,"  compromise  of  the, 

203. 

Ticonderoga,  battle  of,  61. 
Tilden,  Samuel  J.,  175. 
Tippecanoe,  battle  of,  242,  340. 
"  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too,"  350. 
Toast,  Jackson's   immortal  Union,  297, 

334- 

Tohopeka,  battle  of,  244. 

Tories,  English,  chief  characteristics  of, 
171-173;  attempt  to  call  Jackson's 
followers,  339. 

Townshend  Acts,  31. 

Traffic,  interstate,  just  after  the  Revolu 
tion,  196-198. 

Trimtle,  Robert,  330. 

Trollope,  Mrs.,  on  America,  275. 

Trumbull,  Jonathan,  12. 


Tyler,  John  (the  elder),  197,  327-328. 

Tyler,  John,  birth  of,  328  ;  member  of 
legislature,  329  ;  elected  to  national 
House,  330;  arguments  on  slavery 
question,  330-332  ;  opposes  protec 
tive  tariff,  332  ;  governor  of  Virginia, 
333  ;  elected  to  Senate,  333 ;  break 
with  President  Jackson,  335 ;  op 
posed  to  United  States  Bank,  336- 
338 ;  vice-presidential  campaigns, 
340-342,  349-350  ;  becomes  Presi 
dent  on  Harrison's  death,  351  ; 
United  States  Bank  question,  352- 
353 ;  contest  with  Congress  on  Fis 
cal  Bank  bill,  353-358  ;  allied  with 
Democrats  on  Texas  question,  360. 

Tyler,  Lyon  Gardiner,  327. 


U 


United  States  Bank.    See  Bank, National. 
Upshur,  Abel  P.,  356. 


V 


Van  Buren,  Martin,  Jackson's  Secretary 
of  State,  285  ;  resigns  secretaryship, 
292  ;  nominated  minister  to  England 
but  not  confirmed,  295  ;  mantle  of 
Jefferson  fell  on,  311-312;  elected 
President,  342  ;  and  the  panic  of 
*837»  348-350;  defeated  in  presi 
dential  campaign  of  1840  by  Harri 
son,  350. 

"Van  Buren,"  E.  M.  Shepard's,  348. 

"Virginia  dynasty"  of  Presidents,  the, 
279. 

"Virginia  plan,"  the,  199,  200,  201,  202, 
217-218. 

Virginia  resolutions  of  1798,  174,  210- 
211. 

w 

War  of  1812,  216-217,  241-252. 
Ward,  General  Artemas,  70-71,  78. 
Warren,  Mercy,  description  of  Charles 

Lee  by,  68. 
Washington     Benevolent      Society     of 

Portsmouth,  370. 
Washington,  city  of,  bargain  over  loca- 


422 


INDEX 


tion    of,    129-130;    burned    by   the 
British,  216-217,  245,  246. 

Washington,  George,  admiration  of 
British  for,  4;  Charles  Lee's  first 
acquaintance  with,  58;  receives 
Charles  Lee  at  Mount  Vernon,  67; 
reasons  for  appointment  as  com- 
mander-in-chief,  70;  at  battle  of 
Monmouth,  89-92;  altercation  with 
Hamilton,  112-113;  chooses  Hamil 
ton  and  Jefferson  for  members  of  his 
cabinet,  125,  167;  termed  "the  step 
father  of  his  country,"  135;  ap 
pointed  by  Adams  commander  of 
army  for  expected  war  with  France, 
137;  first  president  of  Potomac 
Company,  196. 

Watkins,  Tobias,  290. 

Wayne,  Anthony,  89. 
'  Weathersford,  243-244. 

Webster,  Daniel,  birth  of,  367;  gradu 
ated  from  Dartmouth,  368 ;  mar 
riage,  369;  elected  to  Congress, 
370;  the  Dartmouth  College  case, 
373—379;  Bunker  Hill  orations  and 
eulogy  on  Adams  and  Jefferson,  380— 
381 ;  represents  the  Boston  district  in 
Congress,  381-384;  the  "free  trade 
speech,"  382-383;  elected  to  Sen 
ate,  384;  attitude  on  protection, 
384-386;  the  "Reply  to  Hayne," 
312,  387-391;  "The  Constitution 
not  a  Compact  between  Sovereign 
States,"  393-394;  speech  in  White 
murder  trial,  397;  home  at  Marsh- 
field,  397-398;  second  marriage, 
398;  candidate  for  presidency,  341, 
398,  409;  Secretary  of  State  in  Har 
rison-Tyler  administration,  351,  356, 
399-401;  attitude  on  fugitive  slave 
law,  404-409;  Seventh  of  March 
speech,  404;  Fillmore's  Secretary  of 
State,  409;  death,  409;  mode  of 
dress,  270,  389  n. 

Webster,  Colonel  Ebenezer,  365-367. 

Webster,  Ezekiel,  369,  378,  398. 

Wedderburn,  David,  abuse  of  Franklin 
by,  44-45. 

"  Westchester  Farmer,  A,"  107. 


Whately,  William,  38,  40. 

Whately  letters,  the,  37-38;  published 
in  America,  40;  effect  of,  on  Hutch- 
inson's  reputation,  43-44;  Franklin 
publicly  abused  by  Wedderburn  on 
account  of,  44-45. 

Wheelock,  Rev.  Eleazar,  373. 

Wheelock,  John,  373-374. 

Whigs,  beginning  of  party  called,  295, 

339- 

Whiskey  rebellion,  the,  132-133. 
White,  Hugh  Lawson,  340,  341. 
White  murder  trial,  Webster's  speech 

in,  397- 

Whittier,  J.  G.,  309. 
Wickliffe,  Charles  A.,  356. 
Wildcat  banking  in  early  New  England, 

13-22. 

WTilkes,  John,  64,  65. 
Wilkins,  Isaac,  107. 
William   and   Mary  College,    151,   327, 

328,  333- 
Williamsburg,  state  capital  of  Virginia 

removed  from,  162. 
Wilson,  James,  114. 
Winsor,  Justin,  390  n. 
Wirt,  William,  303,  334. 
Witherspoon,    President,   of  Princeton, 

106. 

Wood,  Rev.  Samuel,  368. 
Woodbury,  Levi,  294. 
Wormeley,   Ralph,  on  Charles    Lee  as 

author  of  "  Letters  of  Junius,"  96. 
Writs  of  Assistance,  26. 
Wythe,  George,  151,  157,  161,  206. 


X.  Y.  Z.  despatches,  the,  210. 


Yates,  Robert,  119. 

Yeomanry  of  England,  comparison  of, 
and  corresponding  class  in  France, 
145-148. 

Yorke,  Sir  Joseph,  opinion  of,  concern 
ing  Charles  Lee,  88. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 
From  the  Compromise  of  1850 

By    JAMES    FORD    RHODES 
In  Four  Volumes.       Cloth.       8vo.       $10.00,  net 


"  It  is  the  one  work  now  within  reach  of  the  young  American  student  of  to-day  in  which 
he  may  learn  the  connected  story  of  the  great  battle  that  resulted  in  the  overthrow  of  slavery 
and  the  rededication  of  the  republic  to  unsullied  freedom.  In  no  other  publication  are  these 
facts  so  concisely,  so  fully,  and  so  well  presented,  and  the  student  who  makes  careful  study  of 
this  work  will  fully  understand,  not  only  the  actual  causes  which  led  to  the  war,  but  he  will 
know  how  gradually  they  were  developed  from  year  to  year  under  varying  political  power,  until 
the  nation  was  ripe  for  the  revolution.  .  .  .  Taking  the  work  all  together,  we  regard  it  as  the 
most  valuable  political  publication  of  the  age,  and  the  intelligent  citizen  who  does  not  become 
its  careful  student  must  do  himself  great  injustice." —  The  Times,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

"There  is  the  same  abundant  and  almost  exhaustive  collation  of  material,  the  same  sim 
plicity  and  directness  of  method,  the  same  good  judgment  in  the  selection  of  topics  for  full 
treatment  or  for  sketchy  notice,  the  same  calmness  of  temper  and  absence  of  passionate  partisan 
ship.  He  may  fairly  be  said  to  be  a  pupil  of  the  Gardiner  school,  and  to  have  made  the  great 
English  historian  a  model  in  subordinating  the  literary  element  to  the  judicial."  —  TKe  Nation. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  GERMANY 

By   ERNEST   R   HENDERSON 

A.B.  (Trinity),  M.A.  (Harvard),  PH.D.  (Berlin) 
Author  of  "A  History  of  Germany  in  the  Middle  Ages" 

In  Two  Volumes.         Cloth.         8vo.         $4.00,  net 

Vol.     I.     9  A.D.  to   1648  A.D. 
Vol.  II.      1648  A.D.   tO   1871  A.D. 


"This  work  is  in  the  form  of  a  continuous  narrative,  unbroken  by  monographs  on  par 
ticular  institutions  or  phases  of  Germany's  development,  but  covering  the  whole  subject  with  a 
unity  of  treatment  such  as  has  seldom  been  attained  by  earlier  writers  in  the  same  field.  In 
this  respect,  at  least,  the  book  is  unique  among  popular  histories  of  Germany  in  the  English 
language."  —  Review  of  Reviews. 

"  It  has  remained  for  Mr.  Henderson  to  treat  at  all  effectively  in  English  in  a  short  space 
the  development  of  the  German  nation  as  a  progressive  and  ever  mobile  whole.  And  to 
appreciate  the  difficulty  of  the  task  before  him,  we  have  only  to  glance  at  the  powers  and 
forces  that  work  out  their  expression  if  not  their  fulfilment,  on  German  ground  and  through 
German  institutions." —  Commercial  Advertiser,  New  York. 

"Of- very  decided  importance.  .  .  .  We  have  never  seen  in  English  a  more  satisfactory 
record  of  the  story  of  Germany —  one  that  fulfilled  as  many  requisites  as  does  that  under  review. 
Mr.  Henderson  writes  in  a  straightforward,  unstrained  style  which  makes  his  work  easy  read 
ing."  —  Baltimore  Sun. 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

66  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 


THE  AMERICAN  COMMONWEALTH 

By    JAMES   BRYCE 

Author  of  "  The  Holy  Roman  Empire,"  M.P.  for  Aberdeen 

In  two  volumes.    Third  edition,  completely  revised  throughout, 
with  additional  chapters.    Crown  8vo.    Cloth,  gilt  tops 

Vol.  I.     THE  NATIONAL  GOVERNMENT  —  THE  STATE  GOVERNMENT.    Pp.  xix  +  724. 

Price,  $1.75,  net 

Vol.  II.    THE  PARTY   SYSTEM  —  PUBLIC   OPINION  —  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND   REFLECTIONS  — 
SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS.     Pp.  904.  Price,  $2.25,  net 

The  two  volumes  in  a  box,  $4.00,  net 


"  It  is  not  too  much  to  call  '  The  American  Commonwealth '  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
additions  to  political  and  social  science  which  this  generation  has  seen.  It  has  done,  and  will 
continue  to  do,  a  great  work  in  informing  the  world  concerning  the  principles  of  this  govern 
ment." —  Philadelphia  Evening  Telegraph. 

"No  enlightened  American  can  desire  a  better  thing  for  his  country  than  the  widest  diffu 
sion  and  the  most  thorough  reading  of  Mr.  Bryce's  impartial  and  penetrating  work."  —  Literary 
World. 


THE  LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  I. 

INCLUDING  NEW  MATERIALS  FROM  THE  BRITISH  OFFICIAL  RECORDS 
By    J.    H.    ROSE,    M.A. 

Author  of  "  The  Revolutionary  and  Napoleonic  Bra,  1789—1815,"  etc. 

Illustrated.     In  two  volumes.     Cloth.     8vo.     $4.00,  net 


"  Mr.  Rose  seems  to  have  read  everything  bearing  on  his  subject,  and  to  discriminate  wisely 
as  to  the  value  of  the  authorities.  In  particular  he  has  for  the  first  time  thoroughly  explored 
the  English  Foreign  Office  Records.  The  information  which  he  derives  from  them  serves  in 
general  to  confirm  the  views  held  by  the  majority,  at  least  of  competent  judges.  English  policy 
during  the  great  struggle  which  arose  out  of  the  French  Revolution  was,  as  it  has  usually  been, 
honest  and  sound  in  purpose,  but  too  often  ill  managed  and  weak  in  its  methods.  .  .  .  Mr.  Rose 
excels  in  the  difficult  art  of  stating  complicated  matters  briefly  and  yet  clearly.  .  .  .  Best  of  all, 
perhaps,  is  his  chapter  on  the  schemes  for  colonial  expansion  which  Napoleon  set  on  foot  as 
soon  as  France  was  at  peace;  it  is  admirably  clear,  and  contains  much  that  will  be  new  to  most 
readers.  Mr.  Rose  is  equally  successful  in  his  military  narrative,  a  subject  wl  ich  is  especially 
difficult  to  treat  both  briefly  and  lucidly.  He  always  sees  the  essential  points  and  never  includes 
needless  details,  though  here  and  there  an  additional  fact  would  have  made  the  whole  more 
easy  of  comprehension.  .  .  .  We  do  not  know  where  else  to  find  a  series  of  great  military 
operations  described  so  well  and  also  so  concisely.  .  .  .  Nothing  could  be  better  than  the  pages 
in  which  he  describes  and  comments  on  the  death  of  Pitt." —  The  London  Times. 

"The  author  is  John  Holland  Rose,  the  well-known  English  historian,  and  his  biography 
of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  will  have  little  difficulty  in  taking  rank  as  the  best  in  the  language. 
Napoleon  is,  to  Mr.  Rose,  neither  a  demi-god  nor  an  ogre,  but  a  wonderfully  brilliant  man, 
whose  complete,  but  on  the  whole,  attractive  personality  is  made  the  subject  of  a  penetrating 
and  luminous  psychological  study."  —  The  Philadelphia  Press. 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

66  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OP  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $I.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


14  MAY  "63  U) 


JEAET,  COLLEGE  OF  AGRICULTURE,  DAVIS 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Book  Slip-10m-9,'46(A302s4)458 


